



J t ■ 



■\^ 



^.>s 



<. 






-^ 



• 0^ c ° " " " o 



.(\^ 



.^^ 



->' 



c" 



-^0^ -^^W^; 



Ao^ 



V. * = » o ' .V 






V 



%^^ ^^sS&i^ "^ 



\--'-y 







^^--^ 



.s^"-. 









l^. 









^ N^ 






c 






-<» 









vP 



























0' "' " • O, 



',5S^v.>', 



rvr- 






Vs ,<:• 



y^-r^ 












^■nv _^ 



^O. •/,,•'' ^0'^ 









- o „ ' ^.^^ 



.0' 



-^^0^ 



4 O 

*•. * » O ,«) ^. 



.A" 







y'% v:^;^^^^ /"% ' 





















^. 






.0 












V 









% V 






4 




The Lady of Cofacliiqui. 



De Soto and His Men in 

the Land of Florida 



BY 

GRACE KING 

Author of ** New Orleans : the Place and the People," "Jean 

Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville," 

** Balcony Stories," etc. 



With Illustrations by George Gibbs 



New York 
The Macmillan Company 

London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 
1898 

All rights reserved 



v'^ 






Copyright, 1898, 
By The Macmillan Company. 












Norwood Press 

y. S. Gushing (jf Co. — Berwick & Smith 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



» 






..=y_ 



r- 






" Deep buried in the ooze of centuries, 

Wrapped in the mighty river's winding-sheet. 
That which the world once called De Soto lies 

So sepulchred, steel-cased from head to feet, — 
Grim ruins of that puny wonder, Man, 

Poor fragments of a half-created Thought, 
Dowered with struggling will for one brief span, 

Then dashed to pieces by the hand that wrought ; 
But yet no part of him, no grasp for power, 

No strenuous aim, no hope, has passed away. 
No wrongful act but blasts this very hour, — 

All, all his acts are seeds that sprout to-day : 
And yet for him — sleep, and thro' all the years 
The endless drone of waters in deaf ears." 



Preface 



THE Inca, Garcilaso de la Vega, tells us, in 
the Introduction to his History of Florida, 
how he came to write it. He says that, in 
frequent and long conversations with a great friend 
of his, a cavalier who took part in the expedition of 
Hernando de Soto, he learned of the many great 
deeds performed in it, both by Indians and Spanish 
cavaliers ; and as it seemed a shame and a pity 
that the memory of so much heroism should die 
out of the world which gave it birth, he induced 
his friend to recount the story in regular order 
while he himself should write it down. But, what 
with long voyages and v/ars, with incessant activities 
on the part of both, twenty years passed and they 
had not carried out their intention ; and as both 
were then well on in years, the fear was great within 
them that, one or the other dying, their story would 
perish. Time and opportunity came, however, at 
last, and the Inca and his friend set themselves to 
the task, and accomplished it. By good fortune, just 
as he had finished his book, the Inca was enabled to 
add to his friend's memory the written testimony of 
two witnesses of the same events. 

Alonzo de Carmona, an old soldier of De Soto's, 



viii Preface 

who after the Florida expedition went to Peru, from 
pure pleasure in recalHng past adventures in his 
old age and retirement in Spain, wrote them down 
for circulation in his family and among his friends. 
The Inca was an old Peruvian acquaintance, so Car- 
mona sent him his manuscript, knowing nothing, 
however, of the Inca's history of Florida. Shortly 
afterwards, the Inca learned that in the hands 
of a printer of Cordova was a collection of narra- 
tives of adventurers in the discovery and conquest 
of the New World, belonging to the Provincial 
of Santa Fe, who had been called away from the 
editing of them by business of his order. The Inca 
went to Cordova, found the collection, about a ream 
of rat-eaten, vermin-infested paper, and searched 
through it until he found the narrative concerning 
Florida written by Juan Coles. Like the account 
of Carmona, it was a soldier's story of his advent- 
ures, short and crude, written without order or pre- 
cision, giving but few local names, and jumping from 
one date or region to another, in order to tell of 
notable deeds as they came, haphazard, to mind. 
But with the two manuscripts before him, the Inca 
went again over his work, carefully noting where they 
agreed with one another, and with his friend's mem- 
ory, and entering the result of the revisions, chapter 
by chapter. And thus his history, completed, was 
published at Lisbon in 1 605, under the title of, " His- 
tory of the Adelantado Hernando de Soto, Governor 
and Captain-General of the Kingdom of Florida, and 
of other Heroic Cavaliers, Spanish and Indian." 



Preface ix 

So long before this as 1557, there had been pub- 
lished at Evora the " True Relation of the La- 
bours of the Governor, Don Hernando de Soto, 
and certain Portuguese Hidalgos, in discovering 
the Province of Florida, by a Gentleman of Elvas." 
The Inca does not mention having seen this true 
relation, and perhaps it is on this account, that one 
acute historian accuses him of having drawn his 
whole material from it, the Cavalier, Alonzo de 
Carmona, and Juan Coles being merely fictitious 
authorities. Be this as it may — the implied false- 
hood — there can be no doubt to-day, that the 
Portuguese narration could not act otherwise, on 
a sympathetic reader, than to stimulate a desire to 
commemorate such deeds of heroism as the Inca 
must have heard of from old Floridian explorers, 
since the " Gentleman from Elvas," in his account, 
completely ignores them, or mentions them with 
niggardly praise. 

Luis Fernandez de Biedma, the royal factor of 
the expedition, also wrote a brief official report of it, 
which he presented to the king and council of the 
Indies, on his return to Spain in 1544; a dry sum- 
mary, made up from memory, with all the slips and 
errors in it incident to such a composition. And 
finally, to complete the enumeration of authorities 
on the subject, there is, or rather was, the report 
made by Rodrigo Ranjel, the secretary of De Soto, 
based upon a diary kept during the march, a version 
of which is contained in Oviedo's History (edition 
1 851), the original text being unknown. 



X Preface 

As long as there have been in this world two men 
telling the same story, there have been two ways of 
telling that story; and if there are two readers, 
there will be just so many ways of believing it. It 
seemed hardly more necessary here, than in the sol- 
dier stories of our own Civil War, for instance, to 
confute and refute, sift and weigh evidence, when the 
question is only one of mere human characteristics, 
exaggerations, and discrepancies, which are the ear- 
marks, after all, of human experience, varying in 
detail, but agreeing in the main essentials. 

The Inca, as half Indian, naturally looks upon 
the native of Florida with a more sympathetic eye 
than does the Portuguese gentleman ; and melan- 
choly over the inevitable doom of the Indians in 
their unequal contest with the Spaniards runs in an 
undercurrent through his narration as through his 
heart. He magnifies the Indians ; their fine cour- 
age, noble bearing, beauty, and courtliness of man- 
ner, the size of their armies and importance of their 
villages, with perfect sincerity and simplicity, and 
with no conscious deviation from truth; for in his 
eyes there was but the difference of God's will be- 
tween the Indian and the Spanish cavalier — between 
his mother's people and his father's people. 

The Portuguese gentleman looked with shrewd 
eyes at everything — Florida, Indians, Spaniards, 
and even at the Adelantado himself There was 
no glamour of sentiment over his vision, particularly 
when the failure of the expedition became apparent 
to it. He, on his side, is methodical in minimizing 



Preface xi 

the Indians — and the country- — and the Spaniards 
in comparison with the Portuguese. When he 
praises, he praises God alone ; and the only heroic 
deeds in the Conquest are attributed to Him, 
without whom, not a Spaniard would have left 
Florida alive. His long list of villages along the 
line of march suggests that the Portuguese gentle- 
man wrote from carefully preserved memoranda. 
The Inca gives fewer names, but his spelling of them 
is more in accord with our pronunciation to-day. 

Many of these Indian names remain to-day and 
serve as landmarks to trace the general line of De 
Soto's march. The precise line of the march has 
given rise to infinite discussions, with the concomi- 
tant advantage of much zealous research, and patient 
investigation of Indian antiquities and traditions, and 
local features that might throw light upon it. 

The original accounts are all within easy reach of 
the curious ; the critical estimates of them, still 
nearer at hand, are codified in Justin Winsor's Nar- 
rative and Critical History of America. In this 
present volume there has been no attempt at aught 
else than to form the original versions of De Soto's 
expedition into one natural and continuous narra- 
tive, with as little alteration of language and spirit as 
possible. What seemed most important and most 
interesting has been taken ; for the sake of brevity, 
much that was only interesting was discarded ; con- 
flicting statements were avoided ; and some of the 
Inca's descriptions and the Portuguese gentleman's 
long speeches were abridged. Although, as it were, 



Xll 



Preface 



to preserve the contemporary spirit from modern 
interruptions, few notes and explanations are given, 
the author has been guided by careful reference to 
such accepted authorities as Jones's History of 
Georgia and Antiquities of Southern Indians ; 
Pickett's History of Alabama; Claiborne's His- 
tory of Mississippi; Yoakum's History of Texas ; 
Marcy's Exploration of the Red River ; Irving's 
Conquest of Florida; Schoolcraft's American In- 
dians ; " Muskhogheean Indians " in Johnson's 
Universal Cyclopedia ; and the Archives of Louisi- 
ana History ; La Salle's Journal of his voyages 
down and up the Mississippi River ; Joutel's Nar- 
rative of his journey from the coast of Texas to 
Canada ; Iberville's Journal of his voyage up the 
Mississippi River from the mouth to Tensas Lake, 
and back again ; Bienville's Journal of his expedi- 
tion to the Red River Country ; St. Denis's Over- 
land Journey to Mexico ; and the " Carte de la 
Louisiane et du Cours du Mississippi," by Guil-* 
laume de L'Isle of the "Academic Royale des 
Sciences," published in the Amsterdam (1707) edi- 
tion of Garcilaso de la Vega, which traces De Soto's 
route with the most reasonable accuracy, and which, 
based as it was upon the memoirs and reports of all 
the previous exploration of this region, might be 
said to resume the ancient and begin the modern 
history of the Mississippi. 



CONTENTS 



chapter 








Page 




Preface ....... vii 


I. 


Hernando de Soto 






I 


II. 


The Beginning of Conquest 






»3 


III. 


Juan Ortiz ..... 






20 


IV. 


The March Inland . . 






31 


V. 


Acuera ..... 






42 


VI. 


Vitachuco . . - . 






50 


VII. 


Apalache .... 






68 


VIII. 


The Ride of the Thirty Cavaliers 






83 


IX. 


Capafi .... 






99 


X. 


Cofa and Cofaqui . 






115 


XI. 


Cofachiqui .... 






127 


XII. 


Xuala, Guaxule, Chiaha, Coosa 






144 


XIII. 


Tuscaloosa .... 






154 


XIV. 


The Battle of Mauvila . 






164 


XV. 


After the Battle 






174 


XVI. 


In the Chickasaw Country 




- 


183 


XVII. 


The Great River . 






197 


XVIII. 


Capaha .... 






210 


XIX. 


In the West 






222 


XX. 


Death and Burial of the Adclantado 
xiii 






. 241 



XIV 



Contents 



chapter 

XXI. Towards Mexico . 

XXII. Back to the Mississippi . 

XXIII. Aminoya 

XXIV. The Flight down the River 
XXV. On the Gulf of Mexico 

XXVI. Mexico 



Page 
257 
269 

277 




0. ; X 3 lAl 



Hernando de Soto and his Men in the 
Land of Florida 



CHAPTER I 

HERNANDO DE SOTO 

HERNANDO DE SOTO and his men came 
within sight of the land of Florida on the 
twenty-fifth of June, 1539. It was Whit- 
sunday. The faint white streak of land between 
the calm blue heavens and the quivering, flashing 
blue waters of the Gulf broke like a new dawn. It 
seemed the crest of a wave held fast, a wisp from 
a white cloud overhead, — nothing more ; but to 
the Spaniards it looked hardly less than the very 
symbol of the Holy Spirit, whose day it was, hover- 
ing over the bosom of the waters ; a token of divine 
approbation and promise, the sure warrant of the 
fulfilment of their hopes and expectations. So, a 
quarter of a century before, the same vague white 
line appeared to Juan Ponce de Leon on that radi- 
ant Easter morning when he named the country 
" La tierra de la Pascua Florida," — the land of the 
flowery feast; and as he looked towards it, he could 
hear, sighing over the waters behind him, the soft 



1 Hernando de Soto 

voices of the Indians borne down in their weakness 
by their oppressions, murmuring, "Over there! 
Over there hes Bimini ! The land of the fountain 
of Eternal Youth! The land where none grow old." 
"Eternal Youth!" Young warriors catch not at 
such words ; but the old, weather-beaten adventurer 
and companion of Columbus heard them and lis- 
tened with his heart ; for the voice of the siren can 
be heard only in the heart, and she sang to him the 
song that never fails to lure the heart of the old 
— the song of joyous youth, of fresh love and fresh 
hopes. Gold and Silver, Fame and Honour! What 
paltry baubles in comparison with Eternal Youth ! 
Ponce de Leon hastened to secure the conquest of 
that land, and set sail for it with men and arms. 
His own efflorescence, his own radiant resurrection, 
was the festival he had in mind when he named the 
shore. Alas ! poor old Ponce de Leon had been 
dead and buried now some fifteen years. 

On De Soto's fleet, the cry of the lookout, sig- 
nalled from ship to ship, was answered with glad 
shouts and cries; trumpets sounded, swords flashed 
in the sun; the decks darkened with a rushing 
throng, and the ships, as if they, too, scented con- 
quest, bounded and leaped forward over the rippling 
surges, their sails thrilling in the wind. These men 
were pursuing no myth; the magic fountain no 
longer lured men on, and, besides, these were all 
young, possessed already the magic fountain of 
youth ; there was but one white-haired man in the 
thousand of them. The song they heard was the 




SwurJs flashed in the sun." 



He. nando de Soto 3 

song the siren sings to the young; the song of the 
future, the fortunate future, the future of fame and 
wealth, of golden rivers and flashing mines, spoils 
and prizes, ransom of kings and capture of kings' 
daughters; the future that youth gladly squanders 
youth to obtain. And the gilded San Cristoval 
was no more appropriate at the prow of his ship 
than was Hernando de Soto at the head of such an 
expedition; the pilot at the wheel could not steer 
a straighter course across the ocean than he to that 
land; for had he not been to it, had he not been 
guided by the lodestar of his hopes into the very 
haven of it ? 

An unknown youth of sixteen, the son of an 
obscure, impecunious hidalgo of Villanueva de 
Barcarrota, with no possession of his own, as the 
saying went, but his sword, no other recommenda- 
tions than his valour and good qualities, he set out 
from Spain, one of the thousand of motley advent- 
urers that followed the new governor, Pedrarias 
d'Avila, to Darien. Twenty years later he returned 
a conqueror of Peru, and rich with fame and fort- 
une ; the lieutenant general and right hand of 
Pizarro, captor of Atahualpa and one of the spoilers 
of the golden city of Cuzco; his name standing only 
after the two Pizarros in the list of the division of 
the prizes ; and young still, still in the prime of life 
and enjoyment, and good looking and unmarried, 
withal. Pizarro, even Cortez himself, was held by 
not a few in Spain to have but a closing vista of life 
in comparison with the career opening before him. 



4 Hernando de Soto 

Of medium height, a figure that appeared as well 
on foot as on horseback, dark complexion, regular 
features, expressive eyes, noble address, he looked 
the cavalier and soldier he had proved himself to be ; 
inexorable of will, inexhaustible of resources, cool and 
daring in battle, prudent and subtle at the council 
board. He was by common consent reputed to 
be the best horseman in the Peruvian army, and 
always excepting the incomparable Pizarro himself, 
also the best lancer in it, his lance being ever 
reckoned equal to any ten of the best. He was 
in truth the first Spaniard — and his horse, the first 
of those fateful animals that the unfortunate Inca 
beheld — if he beheld them. 

The story of the celebrated interview came with 
De Soto to Spain, but its truth was discredited then, 
as it is now. Sent as envoy to Atahualpa, in Caxa- 
malca, De Soto found the Inca, in all his sacred 
majesty, seated on a throne, surrounded by attend- 
ants, awaiting him. The glittering troop of lancers 
galloped to the spot and halted. Atahualpa's eyes 
were fixed upon the ground. The troop passed and 
repassed before him ; still he did not raise his head, 
nor would he look at the envoy nor receive his 
message nor answer him. An attendant looked, lis- 
tened, and answered for him. Stung by the con- 
temptuous disdain, De Soto spurred his horse and 
curveted and pranced the animal so close to the 
throne that the hoofs almost grazed the royal face. 
The Peruvian attendants fled in terror from the 
great, strange beast. Atahualpa then raised his eyes 



Hernando de Soto 5 

and spoke. He commanded the attendants to be 
put to death. 

Seventy of the Peruvian conquerors returned to 
Spain with De Soto, among them the distinguished 
cavaliers Luis de Moscoso d'Alvarado, Nuiio de 
Tobar, and Juan de Lobillo. All went together to 
present themselves at court in Valladolid, — Juan 
d'Anasco, a rich young cavalier of Seville, and an 
amateur in adventure and science, accompanying 
them. They presented themselves in such costly 
apparel and made so gallant a show, that the his- 
torians of the time pause in their serious narratives 
to chronicle it, and tell us, with naive simplicity, 
with what smiles and favour they were received. 
De Soto was treated with especial distinction and 
honour ; and when it became known that of his prize 
money he had loaned th ^ king upwards of a hundred 
thousand ducats, it became known also that royal 
favour, the best gift of the blind goddess even in 
the days of America's conquest, was not to be 
withholden from him. Returning to Seville, he 
took the lodgings and set up the state of a noble- 
man with attendants, a steward, gentlemen-ushers, 
pages, a gentleman of the horse, a chamberlain. 

While, of all the cities of Spain, the gay Andalusian 
capitol would sow in the breast of a youth the surest 
seeds of desire to turn him from contented provin- 
cialism to roving adventure after gold, yet would 
she, more surely than any other city, lure him back 
home again; for none other could vie with her in the 
gratifications that a Spaniard coveted wealth to en- 



6 Hernando de Soto 

joy. Around her fountains, in good sooth, old war- 
riors could forget even to wish for the fountain of 
youth. There, society counted but one season, the 
carnival, which had lasted ever since the days of 
Columbus, with such a glittering flow of adventurers 
streaming through it to and from the New World 
as gilded it beyond the semblance of reality, as the 
streams of Castilla de Oro were said to gild their 
beds. 

When De Soto came to Seville, the brilliant queen 
and leader of this society was Dona Isabella de 
Bobadilla, the widow of Pedrarias, his first chief 
and patron. She had sailed in that same expedi- 
tion to Darien with her husband, to accompany 
him, doughtily leaving behind her eight children 
in Spain, and showing, it is chronicled, no less stout 
a heart on the tempestuous voyage than the mari- 
ners who had passed their lives upon the deep. 
And no less stoutly did she stand the bloody tem- 
pests of her husband's terrible reign in Darien (Furor 
Domini, he was called for it). And it is not to be 
forgotten that, in one of her efforts to mitigate it 
by reconciling the vindictive Pedrarias with Vasco 
Nufies de Balboa, she betrothed her eldest daughter 
to the glorious young discoverer of the Pacific. But 
she could not prevent the bloody execution of Ada. 
. . . Dona Isabella, in fact, not only touched the 
Spanish conquest with her own hands, as it were, 
but, reaching back a little, she could touch the dis- 
covery of America and the great discoverer through 
her aunt, the charming Beatrice de Bobadilla, 



Hernando de Soto 7 

Marchioness of Moya, the favourite and intimate 
friend of Oueen Isabella, but better known now as 
the ardent admirer of Columbus, and his friend at 
court when he most needed a friend. 

Dona Isabella's court in Seville was made up of 
charmins women like herself and a train of cavaliers 
recruited from the fine flower of the Spanish chiv- 
alry and adventurers of the day. De Soto found 
in it the same welcome and the same favour and dis- 
tinction as in the less charming imperial palace 
at Valladolid. His marriage to Dona Isabella's 
daughter, the young Dona Isabella de Bobadilla, 
follows in logical and romantic sequence. And now 
it would seem that De Soto's star had reached its 
zenith. With fame, fortune, and a noble wife, what 
higher was there to guide him to .^ He had but 
to buy land, found a great estate and family, and sit 
down content with his happiness. But it seems 
ordained that ambition may aspire to every success 
out content, and fortune purchase every gift except 
independence of fortune. De Soto had already 
sought and obtained from the king the conquest 
of Florida, offering to achieve it at his own expense. 
A curt old chronicler who took part in the Florida 
expedition, speaking for himself doubtless, says it 
all came about simply through Cabeza de Vaca and 
his talk. 

Cabeza de Vaca had made his appearance at Val- 
ladolidjtoo, after his adventures in America. There 
was no splendour of fame and wealth about him ; 
nothing of the conqueror; his return to his native 



8 Hernando de Soto 

land was in striking contrast to De Soto's. He, 
too, guided by the lodestar of his hopes, had gone 
to the New World in quest of his future. He had 
found his future but not his fortune ; the expedition 
had been a fool's errand, and he had come back 
broken in health and in wealth. Massacre, ship- 
wreck, starvation, captivity, and hopeless wanderings 
through vast unknown savage territories, this was 
the tale he brought back to Spain. Pamphilo de 
Narvaez had been his leader, Florida his El Dorado. 
Ten years afterwards he and three companions 
made their appearance on the frontiers of Mexico, 
the sole survivors of the six hundred men who had 
landed on the coast of Florida. Nevertheless it 
was observed at court that in his relation of his 
adventures, Cabeza de Vaca every now and then 
would arrest his words suddenly, as if on guard 
against revealing secrets, — or would add such 
phrases as " The rest which I saw I leave for 
conference between His Majesty and myself" To 
kinsmen who urged him to be more explicit he 
would say that an oath bound him from revealing 
what he saw, but that Florida was the richest country 
in the world ; and he gave out that he was deter- 
mined to beg the conquest of the country from the 
emperor. The device is a well-known one, but as 
long as the world is peopled, its success may be 
relied upon. 

Hernando de Soto unhesitatingly threw his fort- 
une into equipping this expedition. Luis de Mos- 
coso, Juan de Lobillo, and Nuno de Tobar eagerly 



Hernando de Soto 9 

backed him with their prize money and their ser- 
vices. The liing, who himself, from Cabeza de 
Vaca's delusive manner, believed that Florida was 
another Mexico or Peru, thought De Soto another 
Cortez or Pizarro, and accorded him all the rights 
and privileges and titles necessary or useful to the 
Conquest. He named him governor and captain 
general of Florida, with the title of Adelantado for 
life, and the office of lord high sheriff in continuity 
to his family; he gave him a grant of two hundred 
leagues of land along the coast, and twelve leagues 
square in the interior, of his own choosing, with the 
right of importing negro slaves into it, and allowed 
him one-seventh of the ransom and the spoil of all 
the goods of any cacique, or chief captured. He 
made him. also governor of Cuba, and as a last 
compliment, knight in the military order of St. lago. 
De Soto chose his old companion in arms, Luis 
de Moscoso d'Alvarado, for master of camp, Nuno 
de Tobar for lieutenant general ; Juan d'Afiasco, 
the rich Sevillian, who also put money into the un- 
dertaking, was appointed royal treasurer. And now 
the news was spread through Spain with great trum- 
petings of the grants, privileges, titles, and prospects. 
Nothing else was talked about in city, town, and 
hamlet but how Hernando de Soto and otl er 
conquerors of Peru, not content with their hundreds 
of thousands of ducats of spoils, were going to spend 
all in an armament for a new conquest; and while 
everybody wondered and marvelled, each one con- 
fidently held that this second conquest must indu- 



lo Hernando de Soto 

bitably be far richer and greater than the first. 
From all parts of Spain, volunteers flocked to get 
a place in it, — cavaliers, soldiers, peasants, labourers, 
artisans; nephews of cardinals and ministers; young 
relatives of De Soto, of Luis de Moscoso, and 
even of Cabeza de Vaca. Those who had money 
brought it with them ; others sold or mortgaged 
estates to purchase an interest in the investment. 
Peasants parted from vineyards and farms, artisans 
from trades, to equip themselves with a horse and 
a lance. Who could doubt of the venture when 
gold and silver were coming in by the ship-load 
from the New World.? And they all were willing, 
say the chroniclers, to leave home, parents, family, 
and friends, to part with rents and estates, sell vine- 
yards, farms, and trades, and venture life on the 
expectation that Florida would prove richer than 
Mexico and Peru. 

The excitement spreading over to Portugal, the 
cavalier, Andreas de Vasconselas, with a troop of 
three hundred Portuguese cavaliers, all finely 
mounted and equipped, enlisted ; and they were 
the prettiest company in the expedition ; the most 
soldierly. All the returned soldiers from Peru, al- 
reatly trained and whetted for conquest and plunder, 
eagerly volunteered. There was no lack of choice ; 
more came than could be taken, and when De Soto 
embarked at San Lucar de Barrameda, a crowd 
of disappointed adventurers was left on the quay, 
among heaps of luggage of all kinds, for there was 
an oversupply of provisions also. Money had been 



Hernando de Soto 1 1 

spent so lavishly that more was brought than the 
seven large ships and three caravels could take. In 
San Lucar it was said that a finer expedition had 
never left that part for the New World, and San 
Lucar knew ; for since the time of Columbus the 
water-gate of Seville had been the passageway to 
the New World, and the memory of a middle-aged 
mariner could easily hold all the expeditions that 
had sailed from it. The fleet set sail on the sixth 
of April, 1538, and crossed the bar, trumpets 
sounding. Dona Isabella, the true daughter of her 
mother, accompanied her husband. 

The fleet made the usual stop for water and pro- 
visions at the Canary Islands. The governor of 
Gomara, a cousin of Doiia Isabella's, entertained 
her royally. Living with him was a daughter, the 
Doiia Leonora de Bobadilla, a young girl of six- 
teen, and so extremely beautiful that Doiia Isabella 
begged her of her father as companion, and sailed 
away with her, — she and De Soto promising for 
her a good marriage and establishment in Cuba or 
in Florida. Meeting a calm, but no tempest, the 
expedition made the harbour of Santiago de Cuba 
in due order, and due pleasure, we may well say, 
for here were assembled all the notables of the 
island to greet and welcome the new governor and 
his bride. The welcome lasted for three months, 
with banquets, balls, masquerades, bull-fights, and 
games, with prizes of gold and silver for the gal- 
lants, as if celebrating in anticipation the triumphs 
of conquest. A very harvest of pleasure and tri- 



12 Hernando de Soto 

umph it was to the Spanish cavaliers and a triumph 
of conquest too. But, above all others, shone the 
young lieutenant general, the handsome, dashing 
Nuno de Tobar, mounted on his splendid dapple 
grey charger. He carried off all prizes, and all 
hearts, and chief prize of all, the heart of the beau- 
tiful young Dona Leonora. When Dona Isabella 
and her husband discovered the romance, it had 
already sped to a secret union. The young cavalier 
hastened to make the reparation of a public celebra- 
tion of his nuptials; but De Soto's displeasure was 
implacable, and resenting the insult to his family 
pride and dignity, he dispossessed Nuno de Tobar 
of his title and office, and, in truth, would never 
forgive him, nor restore him to favour. 

The fleet moved round the island to Havana, 
and the summer and winter were passed in Cuba, 
while still further provisions and preparations were 
made for the success of the Conquest. Two more 
vessels were bought and loaded, reenforcements of 
Cubans were added to the army, and horses of the 
fine breed that this island was then producing for 
the trade of conquest. 

By spring all was ready for accomplishment, even 
to favourable winds. Installing Dona Isabella as 
governor of Cuba during his absence, De Soto bade 
her farewell, and, embarking in his flag-ship, the San 
Cristoval, sailed out of her sight into the Gulf, 
toward the Land of Conquest. 



T 



CHAPTER II 

THE BEGINNING OF CONQUEST 

IHE fleet cruised along the wavering coast- 
line until the bay marked on the chart as the 
Bay of Juan Ponce was discovered rounding 
inland. De Soto changed the name to Espiritu 
Santo, in honour of the day, and by sunset he had 
furled sail and dropped anchor across its mouth. 
Barges were sent out in the morning to search 
for a channel and landing-place. They returned 
in the evening loaded with greens of all kinds for 
the horses. The vines heavy with grapes gave 
great joy, for neither in Mexico nor in Peru had 
grapes been found. The week passed in explora- 
tion, and it was not until the next Sunday, Trinity 
Sunday, that formal possession was taken of the 
land ; and the Spanish banner and royal arms were 
raised and fixed in the beach, and the Conquest 
ofiicially begun in the name of the Church and the 
King. The rest was a mere question of human 
powers. 

The three hundred soldiers sent ashore for the 
ceremony scattered over the beach, carelessly and 
easefully, enjoying their first taste of ownership 

13 



14 Hernando de Soto 

of so beautiful a land. As far as eye could see, 
the dark, serried forest ran to the right and left, 
God's fence, as they might call it, about their vast 
property of inland kingdoms, cities, treasure. In 
front stretched the sparkling Gulf, blue as another 
heaven. The fluttering of the flag of his Catholic 
Majesty, the soaring of a bird overhead, the glint 
of a fish through the water — naught else to fleck 
the measureless Sabbath calm ; nor had there been 
aught else during the past week, save a few faint 
spirals of smoke rising here and there in the hori- 
zon — camp-fires, perhaps signals. At nightfall, 
after their supper, the soldiers stretched themselves 
upon the ground around the royal standard for 
their first sleep upon the bosom of their conquest. 
It was rudely enough broken. Just before the 
grey hour of dawn there burst from the silent black 
forest a tumult that might have come from hell ; 
cries and yells, leaping naked forms, and arrows 
darting like a tornado of serpents through the air, 
and slashing into the flesh like knives. Over- 
whelmed and confused, the untrained conquerors 
could only run in helpless terror down the beach 
and out into the water, whence their trumpets sent 
clamorous calls over to the ships for help. It 
came promptly ; horse and foot put out in barges, 
and before the savages could finish their victory, 
they were driven back into the forest, and Spain 
put again in possession of the beach. 

The army was at once disembarked and camped 
around the standard, but the Indians made no 



The Beginning of Conquest 15 

further demonstration. After a few days of rest 
it marched to a deserted Indian village discovered 
on the shore about ten miles distant, where De Soto 
decided to quarter himself for the present. The 
village, a small one, consisting only of one row of 
low wooden cabins, thatched with palmetto, stood 
about an open space, the cabin of the chief on a 
mound at one end; opposite, on another mound, 
the temple bearing its wooden effigy of a fowl. 
The Adelantado with his staff took the cabin of 
the chief, the officers the rest of the cabins ; the 
soldiers, tearing down the temple and gathering 
brush, made rude shelters for themselves. The 
ground was cleared of trees and underbrush for a 
crossbow-shot around the village, sentinels were 
posted, and horsemen ordered on regular rounds, 
and the little savage hamlet was changed into a trim 
military Spanish outpost. The vessels, coming in 
gradually with the tide, were unloaded and the 
provisions stored ; details were sent out every day 
to capture natives for guides and to learn some- 
thing of the country. A few stragglers were caught 
in the forest, but without interpreters they were 
almost useless. De Soto managed to understand 
from them, however, that the village he was in 
belonged to a chief named Hirrihigua, who, warned 
of the approach of the Spaniards, had taken refuge 
with all his people in the forest. These captives 
were always set at liberty with presents for Hirri- 
higua and messages asking for friendship. But the 
savage chief would none of them — neither presents 



1 6 Hernando de Soto 

nor messages. On the contrary, he would rail at 
his people for bringing him fair words and promises 
from Christians, telling them to fetch him no pres- 
ents, but to bring him their heads — these he would 
receive ; but until then he wished to hear neither 
their words nor their names. So much, only, could 
De Soto at first learn : that Hirrihigua knew the 
Spaniards and hated them. 

At length, however, by patience and painstaking 
he gathered from the Indians the explanation, — 
an incident of Pamphilo de Narvaez's expedition, 
which, with all his talking, Cabeza de Vaca had 
omitted. When Narvaez landed on this coast, in 
this bay, Hirrihigua received him and treated him 
as a friend; but the Spaniard acted as the Spaniards, 
(may God forgive them for it, say the pious chroni- 
clers) too often did, repaying kindness and confi- 
dence with treachery and cruelty. He seized Hir- 
rihigua and mutilated him vilely by cutting off his 
nose. But this was not the worst : the chief's old 
mother he had thrown to the dogs, and she was 
devoured before the eyes of her son. This could 
not be forgotten ; it had haunted the memory of 
Hirrihigua ever since, driving him at times into 
the wild frenzy of one possessed by the evil one. 
One, and only one, morsel of revenge in his long- 
famished craving for it he had enjoyed. A Chris- 
tian ship sailed one day into the bay. Divin- 
ing at once that it came in search of tidings of 
Narvaez, who had marched into the forests and 
had nevermore been seen or heard of thereabouts, 



The Beginning of Conquest 17 

Hirrihigua sent messages to it, indicating by signs 
that Narvaez had left papers there to be given to 
Christians who would come for them. In proof, 
bits of paper and old letters found in the Spanish 
camp were tied to sticks and held up from the 
beach, but Hirrihigua refused to give them up 
unless the Spaniards came in person for them ; the 
Spaniards, on their guard, were afraid to trust them- 
selves ashore. Hirrihigua then sent four of his 
warriors to remain on the ship as hostages, where- 
upon four Spaniards agreed to go ashore, paddling 
away in the canoe that had brought the warriors. 
But the canoe had barely touched the sand, when 
the four warriors sprang with a great leap from the 
ships into the water and swam away like fish. The 
four Spaniards were dragged off in triumph into 
the forest. Hirrihigua tortured and killed three of 
them ; the fourth escaped to a neighbouring chief 

When bit by bit the story pieced itself together 
in the camp and grew into a clear meaning to the 
soldiers, that a Spaniard was even then living in 
captivity among Indians, neighbouring to Hirri- 
higua and to the village, there was, there could be, 
but one thought among all, officers and men — 
to advance no further step in the conquest until he 
was delivered. The Adelantado at once sent out 
two detachments of horse and crossbowmen, one 
under Juan de Lobillo, the other under Balthazar 
de Gallegos, with orders to go in different direc- 
tions and search a week for the village in question. 
Juan de Lobillo had a vexatious time of it ; his route 



1 8 Hernando de Soto 

lay through bogs and swamps, where the horses 
could not travel, but where the Indians were at 
their best. As one of the soldiers described them : 
" Warlike and nimble as they are, they care not a 
whit for any footman. When we charge, they run 
away ; and as soon as we turn our backs, they are 
upon us again. They never keep still, but are 
always running about, so that no crossbow nor 
arquebuse can be aimed at them, and before a man 
of us can make one shot, they make six." Juan 
de Lobillo returned at the end of his time, bringing 
six men wounded, one mortally, with nothing gained 
but four frightened Indian women captives. 

Balthazar de Gallegos followed his guide down 
a smooth open road ; but after a time the Indian 
seemed to grow uneasy in his mind and uncertain 
in his conduct. He turned from the road into the 
forest, and leading the troop from one by-path into 
another, he wandered with it round and round 
aimlessly ; or, he might have been seeking a swamp 
into which finally to leave it while he escaped. The 
woods thinning a little, the Spaniards saw the masts 
of the ships in the bay, and discovered the treachery. 
Gallegos frightened the Indian into guiding them 
back into the right road. They had gone but a 
short distance when, turning into an open plain, 
they came face to face with a small band of Indians. 
The troopers, all eagerness to fight, spurred forward 
at full speed, with lances set. The Indians broke, 
darting like hares into the leafy coverts of the forest. 
The horsemen overtook only two: they lanced one 




"Sevilla! Sevilla!" 



The Beginning of Conquest 19 

in the back just as he was running into the woods; 
the other, turning, warded off with his bow the 
lance thrust aimed at him, making a great sign of 
the cross in the air, crying out " Sevilla ! Sevilla ! " 
"Are you a Spaniard?" called out the astonished 
pursuer. " Yes, yes," answered the man. 

The lancer was Alvaro Nieto, the strongest and 
most athletic man in the army. Drawing rein, he 
stooped down, picked up the man with one hand, 
threw him over the saddle and galloped off with 
him to the commander, his comrades following 
with the wounded Indian. Balthazar de Gallegos, 
after putting a few questions to the prisoner, turned 
his troop, and rode at full speed back to the camp. 



CHAPTER III 

JUAN ORTIZ 

IT was late in the night. The camp lay in the 
silence of sleep. The sound of horse galloping 
through it roused it up into wild alarm. The 
Adelantado and his officers rushed to the front of 
their quarters, sure that some disaster had happened 
to one of the detachments, for neither was expected 
for several days. The troop galloped straight 
through the village to the mound and dismounted, 
Balthazar de Gallegos calling out to calm the alarm. 
Up the mound and into the great square room of 
Hirrihigua's cabin he brought the Spanish captive 
and placed him before the Adelantado and his cava- 
liers. Naked, sun-scorched, emaciated, scarred, the 
poor wretch seemed no better than a savage, and 
he looked like one. He had almost forgotten his 
own mother-tongue, his words came hard and strange 
to him, and he helped himself along with gestures 
like the Indians. He was asked for his story. 
His name, he began, was Juan Ortiz. His capture 
and that of his three companions took place as the 
Indians had related. Dragged through the forest to 
this very village, Hirrihigua's village, they soon 



Juan Ortiz 21 

found out into whose hands they had fallen, and 
for what deed they were to atone with their lives ; 
and kept under careful guard, they saw the prepara- 
tions go gleefully forward for the great feast of all 
the tribe, at which their death was to be the enter- 
tainment. The day came; they were stripped and 
one by one driven into the open space, out there ; 
warriors with their bows and arrows surrounded it 
like a fence. One by one three of the captives 
were chased to death like wild beasts, the warriors 
not shooting pointed arrows, for that would have 
killed them too soon, but blunt ones, which pro- 
longed the agony, — and pleasure. Hirrihigua all 
the while stood aloof, gloating over the sight of 
his victims fleeing hither and thither, from one side 
of the square to the other, seeking for some refuge, 
shelter, succour, but finding none ; finding nothing 
but pitiless death. At last came the turn of the 
fourth, Juan Ortiz, a lad barely eighteen years of 
age. He was driven into the square, and the sport 
of killing him was about to begin when a squaw, 
the wife of Hirrihigua, followed by her three daugh- 
ters, ran across the open space to her husband and 
with violent gestures loudly begged him to spare the 
boy, to be content with the death of three men ; 
that the boy was almost a child ; his youth cried to 
him for mercy; he had not shared in the guilt of 
Narvaez; it would be enough punishment to make 
him a slave. 

The chief, who loved his squaw, listened to her, 
and spared Juan's life ; but he made it so bitter for 



22 Hernando de Soto 

him that, in truth, the boy often envied the fate 
of his companions. For what with the continual 
labour of fetching wood and water, the scant food and 
sleep, and the constant buffetings, cudgellings, and 
beatings he received, if he had not been a Christian, 
he said, he would have put an end to himself to get 
out of his misery. And on every feast day he 
would have to play wild beast for the amusement 
of Hirrihigua, and be chased and pelted by arrows 
all day long, from sunrise to sunset. Even when 
Hirrihieua went to his meals, he left warriors on 
the watch to shoot at him and keep him running. 
When the sun went down, and Juan lay panting on 
the earth like a dog, all that kept him in life was 
the kindness of the chief's wife and her daughters. 
They would come to him and tend him and care for 
him, bring him food and speak soft words to him. 
And it seemed, because his cruelties and torments 
did not kill the boy, Hirrihigua's hatred of him 
grew fiercer and fiercer and more ungovernable. 
One day it suddenly determined him to put an end 
to Juan at once. He ordered a great fire to be 
built in the square, and a barbecue made. This 
was a frame like a bedstead standing about three 
feet from the ground. When the fire had burnt to 
a bed of coals, he had Juan seized, stretched and 
bound upon the barbecue, which was then set over 
the red coals. At the cries of agony the burning 
drew from him, the squaw of the chief, with her 
daughters, rushed out to the spot. The wife did 
not know of the intentions of her husband. When 



Juan Ortiz 23 

she saw what was being done, she threw herself 
upon the frame, and tore it from the fire, berating 
the warriors and her husband for their cruelty, and 
begging them for mercy, all in one breath. She 
and her daughters loosened the boy from the frame. 
He was already half roasted; the flesh from the ribs 
stuck to the barbecue and peeled away from him, 
like the rind from an orange, the blood gushing out 
pitifully in streams. 

The chief again let his wife have her way ; per- 
haps he was rather glad of an interruption that pre- 
served a precious subject for cruelty, for he had 
often regretted aloud that he had killed the other 
Spaniards so quickly instead of keeping them for his 
longer enjoyment. The women took Juan into 
their cabin and dressed his wounds with herbs, their 
hearts moved with great pity for the state they found 
him in. They themselves, when they saw all the 
pain and misery inflicted upon him, had more than 
once repented saving him from death that first time. 
After days and days of nursing and sufi^ering, Juan 
was seemingly cured, although his wounds never 
entirely healed, but remained sore and fresh. Then 
Hirrihigua, to rid himself of the constant prayers 
of his wife, and her of the sight of the suff^erings 
of the boy, found a new form of persecution for 
him. He set him to guard the burial-place of 
the village. This was an open field in the depths 
of a dense forest, far distant from the village — a 
lonely, isolated spot, with no sight or sound of 
human habitation. The bodies were laid in wooden 



24 Hernando de Soto 

boxes, resting flat upon the ground, and covered 
only with loose timbers held down by stones. 
Every night beasts of prey from the forests would 
come prowling among the boxes, and again and 
again would force them open and carry off" a corpse, 
to the great grief and humiliation of the village. 
Hirrihigua gave Juan four darts to defend the place 
with, and swore to him that if he allowed one corpse 
to be carried off he should be burned alive this 
time without fail. Juan's only feeling was one of 
gratitude to Providence for delivering him from the 
presence of Hirrihigua, and he feared not but that 
he would fare better with the dead than with the 
livincT. 

o 

He kept good watch and was getting along well 
until, one night, not able to fight any longer against 
his drowsiness, he fell asleep just before dawn, 
which always seems to be the time for sleep to exert 
its greatest power against watchers. The noise of 
a falling cover awoke him. Running to the burial- 
chests, he found that the body of a child brought 
there two days before was gone. He gave himself 
up for lost. Dawn was near, and every day as 
soon as it was light Indians came from the village 
to see if the bodies were all there. But he quickly 
determined to do what he could to find the body 
and kill the animal, or be killed by it. He ran 
wildly and vainly here and there through the woods 
in his despair, making up his mind to attempt 
flight, although he knew that escape was impossible, 
when, hark ! he heard a noise like the crunching 



Juan Ortiz 25 

of bones. Listening with all his might, and creep- 
ing slowly, slowly forward, he came to a clump of 
bushes ; beyond them, through the dim light, he 
saw the figure of an animal crouching. Calling 
upon God, and summoning all his strength, he 
threw one of his darts. He waited and listened. 
It was too dark to see what kind of a shot he had 
made ; he only knew, as hunters do at night when 
they cannot see, by the feeling in his palm that it 
was not a bad one. He waited and listened ; the 
animal did not move. Hope began to rise within 
him as, the creature still not moving, he waited 
and hstened, and watched for daylight. And so 
daylight found him, and showed him the animal 
dead with a dart through its heart, the little corpse 
in its paws. Although he saw it, Juan could not 
believe his eyes. Beside himself with glad relief, 
he ran quickly, put the corpse back into the chest, 
and then, taking the brute by one of the feet, he 
dragged it along, with the dart still sticking in it, to 
the village. 

His elation was not greater than that of the 
Indians over the feat; for it was a wonderful one 
to them, and they marvelled over it and praised 
him well for it. At so fine a stroke of good fort- 
une, the wife and daughters of Hirrihigua plucked 
up courage and began again upon the chief, try- 
ing to persuade him that, as Juan had proved him- 
self so valiant, he should be employed in ways better 
fitting to his strength and courage. And Hirri- 
higua for a while followed this advice, and treated 



26 Hernando de Soto 

Juan far better than he had ever done. But every 
time it was recalled to him that he had no nose, 
that it had been cut off, his rage would break out 
afresh, and this would bring back the memory of 
his mother, and he would wax wild and furious 
again, and even though he tried to control himself, 
he could not, the desire for revenge so maddened 
him. At last he told his wife and daughters that 
he could stand it no longer ; that it was impossi- 
ble for him to live and suffer the Christian to live; 
that they must never again intercede for him unless 
they wished to share in the hatred he felt for the 
youth, for he was decided now to put an end to 
him once and forever, to have him shot to death 
like his companions, at the next feast. The wife 
and daughters, seeing that this was the truth, and 
that now, indeed, no more mercy was to be hoped 
for, submissively told the chief that, as he wished 
so, so it should be. Nevertheless, a few days before 
the feast the eldest daughter took Juan secretly 
aside and warned him of the fixed resolution of her 
father. " But," said she, " if you are a man, and 
have the courage to fly to-night, I can still save 
you;" and naming an hour and place, she con- 
tinued : " You will find an Indian whom you can 
trust. He will guide you through the swamp to a 
bridge. When you get there, send him back in time 
to reach here before daylight, so that he may not be 
missed, and my daring to help you may not become 
known, to bring evil upon him and me. Beyond 
that bridge a road leads to the village of a chief 



Juan Ortiz 27 

who wants me for his wife. His name is Mucozo. 
Tell him from me that I send you to him in this 
last need for him to help and protect you. And 
now put yourself in the hands of your God, — for I 
can do no more for you." . . . Juan threw him- 
self at her feet and kissed her hands in gratitude for 
her pity and kindness then and always ; and that 
night, he met the guide at the hour and place 
named, and following her instructions, sent him 
back from the bridge. 

Speeding, as one fleeing from sure death, he 
reached Mucozo's village before day, and waited on 
the outskirts until light, when he saw two warriors 
leave it and come his way. At sight of him they 
put their arrows to their bows, but when they heard 
his message, they sent word to their chief, who 
came at once. Mucozo was a young warrior about 
twenty-six, handsome of face and figure, with a 
noble address. Juan hurriedly told his story of 
Hirrihigua's torments, showing in proof the marks 
upon his body, the welts and scars and running sores 
from the burning, and telling how that now, there 
being no more hope for mercy for him, the eldest 
daughter, as a last and only means, had sent him to 
beg Mucozo's help and protection. The young 
chief listened and looked with pity. He could see 
Juan's proofs easily enough, for the Spaniard went 
as the savages, with no other covering than a cloth 
around his waist. 

When Juan came to the end of his message, 
Mucozo kissed him on the cheek, the Indian token 



28 Hernando de Soto 

of friendship, and told him that he would do for 
him all that he could, of that to be certain. And 
what Mucozo promised he performed. He kept 
Juan with him, treating him like a brother, and a 
dearly loved one. And although Hirrihigua sent 
again and again for his slave, the young chief always 
put off the messenger with excuses, and at last sent 
answer that he would not give up Juan, and that 
the loss of so hated a slave could be but a small 
one to so great a chief Hirrihigua then induced 
Mucozo's brother-in-law, Urribarricuxi, a powerful 
neighbouring chief, to demand Juan; but Mucozo 
answered him also that it did not beseem a chief of 
spirit and courage to deliver up a poor wretch to an 
enemy to be hunted to death like a wild beast. And 
so Juan had lived with him ever since. And that 
morning Mucozo had called him and said to him, 
" You must know, my brother, that in the village of 
your good friend, Hirrihigua, is a Christian general 
with a thousand warriors and a great number of 
horses, come to conquer the country. You know all 
I have done for you. Now you must go to the Chris- 
tian general, and pray him, from me and from you, 
in return for the good I did you, not to harm me 
and my people in this one little piece of land we 
possess. Take warriors with you, and look out for 
their safety, as our friendship obliges you to do." 
Juan Ortiz thanking God in his heart for the news, 
assured Mucozo that he would give the Spaniards 
such an account of his kindness as would make the 
whole army his friends ; and overjoyed almost past 



Juan Ortiz 29 

reason at the wonderful prospect of deliverance, he 
set out at once upon the road to find the Spaniards 
on the very morning that the Spaniards set out to 
find him. 

When the cavaliers and officers had heard Juan's 
story to the end, when they looked upon his poor 
naked body, — the side that had been against the fire 
one great burn and foul running sores, — tenderness 
and compassion overcame them, and the Adelantado, 
rising and going to him embraced him, as if he had 
been a son, thanking God for returning him again 
to his people. And all the officers embraced him 
with tears and emotion. The Adelantado com- 
manded that without the loss of an hour's time 
messengers should be sent in the name of the 
emperor and king of Spain, and in his own name, 
and that of his officers, and of all Spaniards, to 
thank Mucozo for his bountiful kindness to Juan, 
and to assure him of their unending friendship, 
and to pray him to pay a visit to the camp, that 
they might all see and know him and thank him 
and honour him in person. 

There was no sleep in camp the rest of that 
night, for there was not a soldier in it but wanted to 
embrace and greet Juan, to hear his story, see his 
scars and drink his health, and thank God over 
him as over a brother. But none thanked God as 
Juan did, or shed such tears of joy. 

The next day clothing was given him, the Ade- 
lantado himself presenting him with doublet and 
hose of fine black velvet. But from long habit of 



30 Hernando de Soto 

going naked Juan could not wear them ; for over 
twenty days he could not bear anything on his skin 
except the loosest linen covering. 

Two days later, Mucozo, in answer to the invita- 
tion sent him, made his appearance with a retinue 
of warriors. To the Adelantado's graceful acknow- 
ledgments and the handsome speeches of the cava- 
liers he answered through Juan as gracefully and 
handsomely as any of them, that he had only done 
what his self-respect commanded, and that Juan, 
even without other recommendation, was, on account 
of his virtue and courage, worthy of all the consider- 
ation he had received ; that in sending him to De 
Soto, he had acted for his own benefit, so there was 
no occasion for thanks or gratitude for that. The 
cavaliers who saw and knew Mucozo and told 
about him in Spain, always closed their relation of 
him with : " For grace and discretion, polish of 
manner and high-flowing language, this savage 
chief had nothing to learn from the courts of kings 
and emperors." 



CHAPTER IV 



THE MARCH INLAND 



THE fleet being unloaded, and the supplies 
stored, the large ships were sent back to Ha- 
vana ; the caravels were kept for the service 
of the army. And now the Adelantado was ready 
to penetrate inland, into that vast and unknown in- 
terior, imagination of which had armed and equipped 
this expedition. Proclamation was made for the army 
to prepare to march, and at the end of three days 
Luis de Moscoso had it drawn out in regular order, 
— vanguard, rear-guard, centre, — the baggage train 
packed, Pedro Calderon, a cavalier and good sol- 
dier, who enjoyed the glory of having served as a 
boy under the great Gonzalvo of Cordova, was ap- 
pointed commander of the small garrison to be left 
in charge of the village and caravels. 

The march was northeast, for in that direction, 
according to Juan Ortiz and the Indian captives, lay 
the best provisioned lands. And pleasant enough 
the march was for about one hundred and fifteen 
miles. The more the Spaniards saw of the country, 
the more they liked it. How could it be other- 
wise, or what better could they have asked? The 

31 



32 Hernando de Soto 

soil was rich beyond expectation, with magnificent 
forests of oak, pine, mulberry, and other handsome 
trees that they did not know, and all were wreathed 
with vines, drooping with luxuriant clusters of 
grapes. The soldiers stepped along elated and 
merry, every glance of the eye as it were bringing 
them good news. They left the territory of Hirri- 
higua and entered that of Urribarricuxi, the brother- 
in-law, as has been mentioned, of the courtly and 
generous Mucozo. His village was deserted and 
abandoned, chief and people having fled into the 
forest. Like Hirrihigua, Urribarricuxi would make 
no answer to the messages of De Soto ; he kept in 
his hiding-place and would not be tempted out 
either for peace or for war. 

As the village was large and well stored with pro- 
visions, the army remained there a week, while scouts 
reconnoitred the country ahead of the line of march. 
They found a great swamp which seemed to be an 
impenetrable barrier against further advance to the 
north ; but when the army set out again, De Soto 
marched straight to it and pushed through it in 
two days and camped in a beautiful plain beyond. 
And now his scouts returned, saying that the 
swamp just passed through was child's play to the 
one that lay ahead, — one that it would be utterly 
impossible to penetrate ; the mother swamp, they 
called it, of a group of smaller swamps, that held a 
vast region in a state of impassable mire. 

The Adelantado saw that he must be his own 
scout. Taking a troop of horsemen and some Indian 



The March Inland 23 

guides, he set out, leaving Luis de Moscoso to fol- 
low with the army when he sent him word. Decid- 
ing to try for a passage in another direction, he 
retraced his steps across the swamp just crossed, and 
travelled for three days round the edge of it, send- 
ing out scouts at regular intervals to push through 
the dense growth, looking for some opening or foot- 
path used by the Indians. No path was found, but 
Indians were in abundance. They infested the place 
like mosquitoes, swarming out with sudden fury, 
shooting a volley of arrows and disappearing almost 
before they were seen ; and indeed against the ar- 
mour of the Spanish horsemen the arrows were but 
little more harmful than mosquito stings. A few 
captives were taken and forced to act as guides, but 
they guided like captives and enemies, leading amiss 
and astray. De Soto had four of them thrown to 
the dogs, for these bloody executioners with teeth 
well fleshed and appetites kept keen by starvation 
were carried along on every reconnoissance. They 
soon made an end of the four Indians and their 
patriotism. A fifth, in terror of a like fate, offered 
to guide faithfully. He did so, and the Spaniards 
saw how hopeless would have been their search with- 
out him. He led them clear away from where they 
were and set them in a clean, smooth, broad road, 
running outside and making a circuit of the swamp. 
Following this about four leagues they came to a 
bayou of clear water. Plunging into it, the guide 
led on through water breast high, but over a firm 
bottom, until they came to a channel about a hun- 



34 Hernando de Soto 

dred paces wide which was too deep to wade. Here 
the Indians had made a crossing by cutting trees 
from the opposite sides and fastening the ends 
together. Over this same bridge the guide said 
Narvaez and his army had passed ten years before. 
It was overgrown with bushes and vines. CaUing 
for Diego de Moreno and Pedro de OKva, the 
Adelantado commanded them to take their hatchets 
and clear the obstructions. The men were native 
Cuban mesticoes (half-breeds of Indian and Spanish 
parentage), great comrades and the best swimmers 
in the armv. They sprang forward to the task, 
but were hardly upon the bridge before canoes of 
Indians dashed out from the bushes on the further 
bank, sending clouds of arrows whizzing at them. 
With a high curve through the air the mesticoes 
leaped into the water, and diving deep, swam under 
it to the bank, the arrows pattering above them. 
The Indians, as if satisfied, then paddled away as 
quickly as they had advanced. 

Much pleased at having found what he had 
determined to find, De Soto, without a moment's 
delay, turned for a messenger to take his orders to 
Luis de Moscoso. Casting his eye over his cava- 
liers, he called out to Gonzalo Silvestre, and gave 
him this command in a loud voice before the whole 
troop : " Gonzalo Silvestre, luck has given you the 
best horse in the army, but it was in order for you 
to do the most work with it; and therefore, I shall 
have to put upon you the hardest tasks that come 
in our way ; so take patience and prepare yourself 



The March Inland 2S 

for them. Now you must know that our Hves and 
the Conquest require you to return this night to 
the camp, to tell Luis de Moscoso that we have 
found the passage through and that he must march 
forward to join us. And he must send you back 
at once with some biscuit and cheese for us ; for 
as you know we are hungry and in sore need of 
food. And that you may come more safely than 
you go, order him to send along twenty lancers to 
protect you on the road. I shall wait for you here 
until to-morrow night, when you must be back, even 
though the road seem hard and long and the time 
short. I know whom I am trusting. And that 
you may not go alone, take any companion that 
best suits you ; and be quick about it, so as to be 
in the camp by dawn to-morrow ; for if daylight 
catches you in the swamp, the Indians will surely 
never let you get out of it alive." 

Without a word, Gonzalo Silvestre turned, 
mounted his horse and rode off. Passing by Juan 
Lopez Cacho, a page of De Soto's, who also had a 
good horse, he drew rein to say : " The governor 
orders you and me to go on a message from him to 
the camp before daylight, so follow me at once, for 
I am on the way." " On my life ! " said Juan 
Lopez, " I cannot go, I am tired ; take some one 
else." " The governor ordered me to choose a com- 
panion ; I choose you. If you will come, come and 
welcome ; if not, stay where you are, for going two 
together will not lessen the danger, nor going one 
alone increase the toil." And Gonzalo Silvestre, 



^6 Hernando de Soto 

spurring his horse, rode on. Juan Lopez Cacho, 
cursing his luck, jumped on his horse and fol- 
lowed. 

The sun was just setting. They were both 
youths, hardly over eighteen years old, and soon, 
light-hearted enough, they were trotting over the 
first miles of their journey, for the road was clear 
and free of Indians; but when they struck the low 
marshy places the troop had just struggled through, 
the bogs, thickets, and canebrakes, the slow bayous 
oozing in and out of the great swamp, their troubles 
began. There was no regular road or path to fol- 
low, and knowing nothing of the country, they 
could not go round or avoid the bad places for fear 
of getting lost, but were forced to follow the track 
made by the troop two days before, looking out for 
what marks and signs they could remember. Night 
fell, and soon in the gloomy forest they could not 
see anything distinctly. And now, the risk of being 
caught by the Indians was so great that nothing 
could have saved them if they had not been helped 
by the marvellous instinct of their horses. As if 
possessed of human^understanding and reason, they, 
so soon as they saw that their riders could not guide 
them, set themselves of their own wills to trace 
the road, thrusting their nostrils to the ground, 
and like hounds or setters, scenting the trail. The 
men at first not catching their meaning, pulled 
again and again at the reins, but the horses would 
not lift their heads from the ground, except when 
they lost the scent, then raising and tossing them. 



The March Inland 37 

they would snort so loudly that it seemed certain 
they must be heard by the Indians. 

The horse of Silvestre was surer on the trail and 
quicker to find it when it was lost than the other 
one. But that was not astonishing, for he was 
indeed, by every sign that nature gives, a per- 
fect horse, either for peace or for war. A dark 
chestnut he was, with a white stocking on his left 
hind foot, white marks on his forehead, and a 
white rim around his mouth. The horse of Juan 
Lopez was a light bay, with black feet ; an extremely 
good horse too, but not to be compared with the 
chestnut, which took the lead and kept it. Recogniz- 
ing at last the good sense of the animals, their riders 
gave them full rein and let them do as they would, 
without opposition or protest. And so the youths 
journeyed on through the slow black hours of the 
night, nearly dropping from their saddles from 
fatigue and sleep and hunger, for during three days 
they had had no rest, and nothing to eat but the 
corn-stalks they gathered as they rode through the 
fields of the Indians. And their horses were not 
much better off; for during the same length of time 
they had not been unsaddled, and the bits had only 
been taken out of their mouths to let them eat. 
And now, as the youths felt their way along, see- 
ing nothing as they said but death looking them 
straight in the face, camp-fires began to glimmer 
through the trees, to the right and left. Some- 
times pictured in a great circle of light, bands of 
Indians would be seen feasting and dancing and 



38 Hernando de Soto 

merry-making, and sometimes so near were they 
that their singing and music and din of noise and 
confusion could be distinctly heard. The Span- 
iards thanked God that it covered the footfalls of 
their horses. Even the sudden and frantic barking 
of the more watchful dogs trying to give the alarm 
passed unnoticed. Had it been otherwise, the 
Spaniards would never have lived to tell of it. 

When the forest was silent and dark again, 
Juan Lopez said to his comrade : " Either take 
your lance and kill me here on the spot, or let 
me have a wink of sleep ; I cannot go a step 
farther, nor hold myself on my horse, for I am 
dropping with sleep." Gonzalo Silvestre, who had 
already refused Cacho three or four times, could 
not withstand his importunity any longer. " Get 
off your horse, then," he said impatiently, " and 
go to sleep, if you would rather run the risk of 
being killed by the Indians than resist one hour 
longer. The pass through the swamp cannot be 
very far off now, and we must get through that 
before day, for if light catches us here we shall 
never get through alive." Juan Lopez, without 
waiting for more than consent, had dropped from 
his saddle upon the earth like one dead, and before 
Silvestre had finished speaking was fast asleep. 
Silvestre took his lance and bridle from his hand. 
A great cloud passed over the night and rain poured 
down in torrents ; but all the water of that or any 
other deluge would have failed to waken or even 
disturb Juan Lopez. 



The March Inland 39 

The rain ceased, the clouds passed away, and 
in a flash it seemed to Silvestre it was broad 
daylight ; perhaps he himself had slept on his 
horse like his companion on the ground. Hastily 
calling to Juan Lopez in a suppressed voice, he 
tried to rouse him, but finally he had to take the 
end of his lance to him. " Look," he whispered 
angrily, " what your sleeping has brought us to ! 
It is daylight and we shall never escape the 
Indians now!" Juan Lopez was in the saddle 
like a flash, and the two galloped at full rein, the 
two horses stretching their legs as gallantly as if 
they had had no past stress. But in the light of 
day, as the Adelantado had told them, they could 
not help being seen by the Indians. In a moment 
the forest was clamorous with alarm ; cries and yells, 
blowing of horns and conch shells, beating of drums, 
the hue and cry rising behind, spread on each side, 
then flew on ahead and was answered by Indians 
flir away in the distance before them. As the two 
youths galloped into sight of a great stretch of 
marsh and of water, lying before them, from every 
bush, reed, and branch there darted canoes filled 
with yelling savages. It seemed to them that the 
very leaves fell from the trees to turn into canoes 
filled with savages. They saw the fate awaiting 
them, but they saw too that in daring, not in 
prudence, lay their only chance. They galloped 
through the marsh and spurred into the deep water 
and swam. Arrows pelted them like hail. " God 
alone," they exclaimed afterwards, " knew how they 



40 Hernando de Soto 

did it," but they got through. As they came out 
on to the dry land, Gonzalo turned his head for a 
look backward : he said that the water was strewn 
with arrows as a street is strewn with flowers on a 
day of high festival. 

The wild clamour of the pursuit had reached the 
camp. Suspecting the cause of it, the troopers, 
calling out to one another, jumped on their horses 
and spurred down the road to the rescue. A long 
way ahead of them all sped Nuiio de Tobar, racing 
his beautiful grey charger. Disgraced though he 
was, and unranked, he was still the handsomest and 
most dashing cavalier in the army, and the soldier's 
ideal, in truth, of a noble cavalier, who for a friend 
would of himself defy the onslaught of armies. 
The Indians burst like a thunder-cloud from the 
forest and into the road, but at sight of the troopers 
charging towards them they stopped, turned, and 
vanished. 

Gonzalo Silvestre delivered his message, and in 
less than an hour afterwards was on his way back 
to the Adelantado with the supplies of food and his 
escort of twenty lancers. Juan Lopez Cacho re- 
mained with Moscoso. " For," said he, " now that 
the danger is over, the captain-general did not order 
me to return any more than to go." 

The Adelantado received Gonzalo Silvestre as 
handsomely as he had sent liim. Before all his 
troops, and with the high-sounding words that 
he knew so well when and how to use, he praised 
his energy and courage in the incomparable peril 



The March Inland 41 

of his mission, confessing that he had not dared 
to hope to see him ahve again. " No man," he 
concluded, " could humanly do more," and he 
pledged himself that Gonzalo one day should 
receive his fitting reward. 



CHAPTER V 

ACUERA 

THE Spaniards marched through the territory 
of Urribarricuxi, and came into that of an- 
other tribe and chief, Acuera, for tribe and 
chief here, as in many other parts of Florida, had 
the same name. As before, the Hne of march was 
deserted, the Indians having fled to the forest. As 
soon as a few captives were secured, De Soto sent 
them with presents and greetings to their chief, as 
he had sent to Urribarricuxi and Hirrihigua. He 
kindly invited Acuera to come from his hiding-place 
and meet the Spaniards in peace and friendship. The 
Indians, he said, should rejoice to have the Span- 
iards as friends and brothers, for they were a brave 
and warlike people, and if their friendship were not 
accepted, they could do much harm and damage 
to the land. And Acuera could hold it for certain 
that he, their commander, had no will to injure any 
one, as was to be seen by the country he had already 
passed through, where he had done no harm, but 
on the contrary had shown friendship even to those 
who did not care to receive it, his first and princi- 
pal intention being to bring all the provinces of 
that great country into subjection to his master, the 

42 



Acuera 43 

powerful emperor and king of Spain. Therefore, 
he wished to see Acuera and talk to him fully and 
freely, so that he could explain to him, and tell him 
of the orders the king had given about the treat- 
ment of the natives of the land. 

Acuera, like Urribarricuxi, and Hirrihigua, was 
too wily to be lured into the power of the invaders 
of his territory; but unlike them, he answered the 
Spanish general. From other Spaniards, he said, 
that in years gone by had come into the land, he 
had become well acquainted with what manner of 
people they were, and knew their life and manners. 
They held it their business to go wandering round 
like vagabonds from country to country, robbing 
people who had done them no offence whatever. 
With such a people he wished no kind of peace 
and friendship, but war, deadly, never-ending war. 
Even if they were as brave as they boasted them- 
selves to be, he had no fear whatever of them, for he 
and his people held themselves to be no less brave. 
To prove this he promised the Spaniards to fight 
them so long as they cared to remain in his lands ; 
not openly or in field of battle, but by ambush, 
stratagem, and surprise. So he warned them and 
requested them to be on their guard, for he had 
ordered his people to bring him every week two 
Christian heads ; no more, as he would be content 
with that. By beheading two of them every week, 
he could finish them all in the course of a few 
years ; for even if they settled and took up their 
abode in his land, they could not perpetuate them- 



44 Hernando de Soto 

selves there, as they had not brought their wives 
to raise families. As to what the Spanish general 
said about obedience to the king of Spain, he him- 
self, Acuera, was king in his own land, and there 
was no need for him to become the subject of 
another, who already possessed so many subjects. 
Moreover he held those men to be most vile and 
pusillanimous, who put themselves under another 
man when they could live free. He and his peo- 
ple would rather die a hundred deaths to maintain 
their freedom and the freedom of their country ; 
and this they said not for once but forever. And 
as to what the Spanish general said about the 
Spaniards being servants of the king of Spain, and 
going about conquering new lands for him, they 
were welcome to that position ; and now he held 
them in even less esteem than before, since they 
confessed that they were servants and fought to gain 
lands for another to rule and to enjoy. As they 
bore the hunger and toil, and suffered the ills and 
hardships, and risked their lives, it would be more 
honourable and profitable for them to win lands 
for themselves and their children, not for some one 
else. And since they were so low that even at 
this distance they did not lose the name of ser- 
vants, they need never, at any time, hope for his 
friendship ; he did not care to bestow it so basely. 
He did not need to know the orders of their king, 
as he knew what to do in his own lands, and how 
to treat the Spaniards, who, in short, were to get 
out of it as quickly as possible if they did not wish 
all to die in it. 



Acuera 45 

Acuera proved to be a man of his word. Dur- 
ing the twenty days the invaders were in his ter- 
ritory his people neither slept nor rested in the 
fulfilling of his commands. Not two heads every 
week, but two every three days was the tally they 
kept of their work. A Spaniard could not wander 
a hundred yards from camp without being spitted 
by an arrow ; and however quick a rush was made 
to the rescue, his comrades found a headless corpse 
awaiting them. If the body was buried where it 
was found, the Indians would return the following 
night, dig it up, cut it in quarters, and hang the 
members in the trees, where the Spaniards might 
see them. Fourteen Christian heads were sent to 
the chief by his warriors. And this was not all, 
for they wounded the invaders besides by the score. 
The forest lay so close around the camp that they 
could make their strokes with very little risk to 
themselves, escaping easily and quickly to it after- 
wards, and they never left undone a stroke that 
opportunity offered. And so great was their cau- 
tion and vigilance, that the Spaniards, with their ut- 
most efforts, and with all their advantages of armour 
and horses, were never able to kill more than fifty 
of them. Truthful indeed were the words shouted 
by the Indians after the army all along its march : 
"Pass along, robbers! Pass along! In Acuera 
you will find what you deserve. Your bodies will 
be cut into pieces and hung in the highest trees on 
the roadside." 

The captive Indians spoke of a province lying 



46 Hernando de Soto 

farther along to the northeast, called Ocali, where 
the people wore ornaments of gold. This decided the 
Adelantado to direct his march thither. The coun- 
try, as the distance increased from the sea, became 
more and more beautiful, the soil more and more 
fertile. Such a region of fine trees the Spaniards 
had never beheld ; they noted every variety of nut, 
oak, and pine known to them, and great numbers 
of other trees that they did not know, and the for- 
ests were so clean and clear that the horses could 
get with ease through them. Swamps and low 
places were no longer met, nor those murderous de- 
ceptive stretches of grass that lay along the sea- 
shore, where a footfall would send the surface into 
a tremble for fifty paces around, upon which, if a 
horse ventured he would sink out of sight. And 
as had been foretold by the Indians, the country 
was well supplied with food ; little groups of empty 
cabins surrounded by teeming cornfields stretched 
along miles of the march. But no gold was seen, 
nor any evidence of it. 

The village of the Ocali was deserted, but its 
storehouses had been left well filled with corn and 
vegetables, dried plums and grapes, pumpkins, nuts, 
and acorns. De Soto quartered his army there, 
while runners carried the usual messages and pres- 
ents in search of the chief, who allowed himself 
to be persuaded to come upon a visit to the camp. 
The Spaniards received him with many protesta- 
tions of friendliness, but he proved so suspicious 
and watchful that nothing was gained from the 



Acuera 4*7 

visit. Near the village was a river, which was too 
deep to be forded, and the chief agreed that his 
men should build a bridge over it. As he and 
De Soto were walking along the bank selecting the 
proper place, a band of about fifty Indians with 
bows and arrows suddenly appeared on the oppo- 
site side, and shouting, " You want a bridge, do 
you, robbers ? You will never see it made with 
our hands," they let fly a volley of arrows at De 
Soto and his suite. 

The cries they gave roused the greyhound Bruto, 
whose collar was held by a page. The dog, with 
a spring that dragged the page to the ground and 
made him loose his hold, leaped into the water and 
made for the Indians on the opposite bank. The 
Spaniards called to him, but he would not heed. 
Swimming steadily forward through the swarm of 
arrows, which were soon sticking in him as closely 
as pins in a cushion, he reached the bank and eagerly 
sprang upon it, but tottered and fell dead, — literally 
shot to pieces. More than fifty arrows were counted 
in his shoulders and head. The Spaniards grieved 
bitterly over him, for he was a rare animal and 
had proved himself as good a soldier as any in the 
conquest. By day and night he had stood his 
watch and guard, and in the province Acuera had, 
by his vigilance, saved many a man his head. In- 
deed, as his fate showed, he was never off guard. 
Many of his feats would have been considered mar- 
vellous for another animal. Only a few days before, 
four young warriors came to the camp, ostensibly 



48 Hernando de Soto 

as envoys, really as spies. The Adelantado re- 
ceived them with his habitual affability, giving them 
some gaudy Spanish trifles as presents, and order- 
ing them to be provided with food. The Indians 
were sitting quietly eating, when seeing the Span- 
iards completely off their guard, the four of them 
jumped up as one man and ran towards the woods 
at full speed, which was too fast for any Spaniard 
to overtake them on foot, and there were no horses 
at hand. Bruto, who happened to be near, hear- 
ing the outcry, and seeing the Indians running, 
gave chase. With human judgment, he flew past 
the first Indian, the next, and the next, and catch- 
ing up with the one ahead, sprang upon his shoul- 
ders, pulled him to the ground, and held him there, 
until the Indian behind came up. Leaping upon 
him, he pulled him to the ground and held him ; 
and so on, repeating the manoeuvre until he had all 
four on the ground, he sprang from one to the other, 
as fast as one arose, jumping upon him, and bark- 
ing so fiercely and furiously that, confused and 
stunned, all lay helpless until the Spanish soldiers 
came and took them in charge. 

On another occasion, before the army reached 
Ocali, while some Spaniards and Indians were 
talking together on the bank of the river in the 
most amicable way, one of the Indians, acting from 
one of those foolhardy impulses that seemed irre- 
sistible to the race, struck one of the Spaniards 
over the head with his bow and leaped into the 
stream, all of his companions leaping after him. 



Acuera 49 

Bruto, seeing it, sprang also into the water, and 
swimming past the others, until he reached the In- 
dian who had struck the blow, he tore him to 
pieces in mid-stream. In truth the Indians were 
just in hating Bruto as if he were a Christian. He 
was of that breed of dogs that passed into the 
saying that it was not the Spaniards so much as 
their dogs and horses that conquered the New 
World. Had he lived, he would assuredly have 
been as famous as Becerillo of Porto Rico, to 
whom the Spaniards always allotted a man's share 
of the spoils, or as Becerillo's pup, Leoncillo, be- 
longing to Vasco Nuiiez de Balboa. This dog 
owned gold and slaves, and, it is said, could always 
distinguish the Indians who came with peace in 
their hearts from those who came with war. 

The Spaniards after this made their own bridge, 
and crossing the river, moved on towards the next 
province. But before leaving Ocali they set am- 
bushes, and captured thirty Indians for slaves. 
They had brought some along from Hirrihigua and 
Urribarricuxi ; but there were still many soldiers 
unprovided, and they grumbled for cooks to make 
their bread. Pounding corn in a wooden mortar, 
they said, and sifting the meal through their coats 
of mail, and then making the bread and baking it 
upon tiles, was so troublesome that they preferred 
eating the corn parched whole. 



CHAPTER VI 



VITACHUCO 



BY means of fair words, gifts, and promises on 
the one hand, and dire threats on the other, 
the Indians captured at OcaH were made to 
act as guides as far as the next province. This was 
a vast territory called Vitachuco, measuring fifty 
leagues as the army marched across it. It was di- 
vided among three brothers, the eldest Vitachuco 
ruling over one half, the next over three tenths, 
and the youngest over two tenths of it. The army 
arrived first at the lands of the youngest brother, 
Ochile, and the Adelantado moving quickly ahead 
with a squadron, surprised and captured the village 
one morning before daylight, with Ochile and all his 
warriors in it. The Indians were terrified beyond 
resistance by the sight of the strange, new army, 
the men in armour, the horses, banners flying, and 
above all, by the bands playing their loudest music, 
for De Soto had commanded the band to play 
its loudest at the assault. All the other captives 
were set at liberty, and only the young chief kept 
a prisoner. But he was treated with such honour 
and flattery that in his gratitude he was easily per- 

50 



Vitachuco 



51 



suaded to send messages to his brothers coun- 
selHng their submission also to the invaders. 
He told them how the Spaniards had come into 
his territory, and how they said that their desire 
and spirit was to have all the Indians as friends 
and brothers ; that they were going on through 
to other territories, and would not do any injury 
on their march, particularly to those who received 
them peaceably. But if there were any who 
would not thus receive them, the Spaniards would 
destroy their village, burn their cabins for fire- 
wood, devastate their cornfields, and waste and 
scatter their provisions, taking at will what they 
needed, — in short, conduct themselves as in the 
land of enemies. All of this might be avoided by 
accepting the peace they offered, and it should be 
done for the country's interest. 

The second brother, who lived near Ochile, an- 
swered at once, thanking his brother for the advice, 
and promising him to come in three or four days in 
state and ceremony to make peace with the Span- 
iards, supplicating his brother in the meantime to 
keep on good terms with such powerful conquerors. 
Three days later he came, with a suite of his finest 
looking warriors, and he left nothing undone in the 
way of submission to keep the Spaniards in a good 
humour. 

Vitachuco made no answer to the message of 
Ochile beyond holding the messenger and not 
letting him return. The two brothers, under the 
compliments and presents of the Spanish com- 



52 Hernando de Soto 

mander, sent another messenger to him, begging 
him not to delay accepting the terms offered, for 
the Christians were indeed a folk whom the In- 
dians could not hope to get the better of in war. 
In person they were the bravest of the brave, 
and were truly what they called themselves, invin- 
cible, being in truth, by blood, spirit, and valour, 
children of the sun and moon, the deities of the In- 
dians ; as such they came from the country where 
the sun rises, bringing with them beasts called 
horses, which were so brave, fleet, and powerful 
that the Indians could not withstand them by 
strength, nor escape them by flight. Therefore, as 
his brothers, anxious for his life and safety, they 
besought him not to bring destruction upon him- 
self 

Vitachuco's answer to this was : " It is very plain 
that you are youths, and that you lack judgment 
and experience to talk as you do about these Chris- 
tians, praising them as good men who never harm 
any one ; as children of the sun, valiant and de- 
serving any service that we can render them. The 
captivity that you have put yourselves in, and the 
vile, cowardly spirit that you have acquired in the 
short while since you gave yourselves up to be ser- 
vants and slaves, make you talk like women, prais- 
ing that which you ought to vituperate and abhor. 
Do you not see that these Christians cannot be 
better than those of the past who did such base 
things, for are they not of the same nation and 
the same land ? Do you not see their perfidy and 



Vitachuco ^^ 

treachery ? If you were men with men's judgment, 
you would see that by their own Hves and words 
they show themselves to be children of the evil 
spirit, and not of the sun and moon, your gods ; 
for do they not go from land to land killing and 
plundering and destroying whatever they find in 
their way, taking away the wives and daughters of 
others instead of bringing; their own with them ? 
As for their making homes and settlements of their 
own, they are not content with any land they see or 
tread, for their delight is to wander like vagabonds, 
living upon the toil and sweat of others. If they 
were all good, as you say, they would not leave 
their own country, where they could make use 
of their goodness in sowing, planting, and gather- 
ing their crops to sustain themselves, without harm 
to others, and go about as they do, committing their 
robberies without shame and without fear of the 
Great Spirit. Tell them not to enter my territory; 
for I promise them, however valiant they be, if 
they put their feet within it, they shall never get 
out of it alive ; for I shall destroy and make an end 
of them all in it. Half I shall roast, — the other 
half I shall boil alive." 

And now that he was started, Vitachuco did not 
wait for further messages, but every day sent two 
or more of his warriors, who came like heralds into 
the Spanish camp, sounding their horns and pro- 
claiming his defiance and threats of the various 
ways he would put an end to the Spaniards so soon 
as they set foot within his domains : " He would 



54 Hernando de Soto 

make the plains open and swallow them up ; he 
would make the hills come together and fall upon 
them and bury them alive ; he would order such 
wild, furious winds to blow that the trees would be 
uprooted and hurled upon them as they passed 
through the forests ; he would command a great 
multitude of birds to fly over them with venom in 
their beaks, which they should drop upon them, so 
that their flesh would fester and rot away from 
them ; he would poison the water, the grass, the 
trees and the fields, and even the air, so that neither 
man nor horse among the Christians should escape 
with life ; and their fate would thus serve as a warn- 
ing to all who thereafter should dare to enter his 
lands against his will." 

Nevertheless the Spaniards advanced steadily 
upon their march, De Soto and his officers all the 
while feasting and entertaining the young chiefs, and 
they working with might and main to please their 
masters and bring their haughty, ferocious brother 
also into the same subserviency. Finally, seeing 
that their messages were of no avail, they obtained the 
Adelantado's leave to go themselves and speak to 
Vitachuco. And in truth they did so work upon 
him with their fears, and with the fact, that not- 
withstanding his threats the Spaniards were already 
well within his territory, that Vitachuco began to 
consider the policy of dissembling his hatred until 
a more convenient season for expressing it ; that is, 
until under cover of pretended friendship he could 
fall upon and destroy them all. With this in his 



Vitachuco 55 

mind, he changed his former savage words into 
others of mildness and suavity, telling his brothers 
that he had no idea the Spaniards were men of such 
parts and qualities as they described, but now since 
he was convinced, it would please him to enter into 
peaceful and friendly relations with them. But first 
he would like to know how many days the army 
would be in his territory ; what provisions would 
be required during its stay ; and what levies would 
be made during their march through it. De Soto 
replied handsomely that he would stay no longer in 
the territory than Vitachuco desired to have him ; 
that he required no more provisions than Vitachuco 
desired to give him ; and that he asked for nothing 
further than Vitachuco's friendship. 

Upon this, Vitachuco began to make ready for 
a grand reception of the Spaniards, and for a 
grand massacre of them afterwards. He gave out 
publicly that day by day his affection for the 
Spaniards and his desire to serve them were growing. 
He summoned the bravest and finest looking of 
his warriors to go with him to meet them, and 
commanded a great store of food, water, and grass 
for the horses to be gathered together in his village 
against their arrival in it, so that there should be 
no lack of anything, either for hospitality or for 
entertainment. When all was in readiness to his 
satisfaction, he sallied forth with his two brothers 
and an escort of five hundred warriors in gala array 
to meet the army. A handsome and noble sight 
they presented, striding over the country with 



56 Hernando de Soto 

their magnificent war bonnets of feathers waving 
above their heads, their finest bows in their hands, 
and their gayest quivers at their backs. Vitachuco's 
haughty head and fierce countenance rose preemi- 
nent above all. He was of about the same age as 
De Soto, finely proportioned and noble in bearing, 
and as he stepped forward to greet the Spanish 
commander, in the eyes of the onlookers, the 
savage had no concessions to make the cavalier 
either in presence or in manner ; in truth he acted 
his role with the grace and ease of a subtle courtier. 
De Soto, always won by submission, embraced him 
warmly. 

The Spanish army entered the village in full 
military style, horse and foot, in regular squadrons, 
banners flying, bands playing. The village was a 
large one, of about two hundred well built cabins, 
and surrounded on the outskirts by a fringe of 
smaller and meaner ones. The Adelantado with 
his staflT and body-guard lodged in the great cabin 
of Vitachuco, with him and his two brothers ; and 
for three days the Spaniards and Indians gave 
themselves up to good cheer and conviviality. 
Then the two brothers took their leave, and Vita- 
chuco entered upon the second act of his drama. 
His ostentatious friendliness had in fact so put the 
Spaniards off their guard that he was able in all 
security to work out his plans against them, and suc- 
cess lay within his grasp, when, and lucky it was for 
the Spaniards, he let it sHp from him. As if drunken 
from imagination of the fumes of the blood he was 




De Soto and Vitachuco. 



Vitachuco 57 

going to shed, he could not keep his elation to 
himself nor his counsel, and like the drunken he 
would not fear nor calculate. There were in the 
army four warrior captives from a distant tribe, 
carried along by the Adelantado as interpreters ; 
Vitachuco secretly sent for them, and not only told 
them of his approaching triumph, but vaingloriously 
gave them all the details of it, promising them 
honour and position if they chose to lend a hand. 
He told them that he had collected and held in 
readiness ten thousand braves, who came as they 
pleased in and out of the village upon pretext of 
fetching in wood, water, and food, the Spaniards 
suspecting nothing. In three or four days he 
would muster them all in the plain outside the vil- 
lage, with their weapons hidden at their feet in the 
grass, and then he would invite the Spanish general 
to go with him to see what a fine band of warriors 
he had to fight for the Spaniards, if need be, in the 
Conquest. " As we are friends," explained Vita- 
chuco, " he will come with me without distrust. I 
shall have twelve strong, daring warriors with me 
who will keep near him, and as we get close to 
where my bands are drawn up, these warriors will 
jump upon him and seize him, whether he is on 
foot or on horseback, and make off with him to the 
woods. This will be the signal for my braves to 
seize their weapons and fall upon the strangers, 
who, unarmed and stunned by the capture of their 
chief, can easily be destroyed." 

The four Indians, carried away by the same ex- 



58 Hernando de Soto 

citement as the chief, pledged themselves to aid in 
the massacre, which they praised and lauded as a 
plot worthy of a great warrior and chief. But 
better judgment came to them after a while, and 
showed them the enterprise in all its dangers 
and difficulties. Their experience with the Span- 
iards did not lead to the belief that they could be 
taken unarmed and put to death so easily and 
simply ; and the more they thought about it the 
more they were convinced of this. Therefore sure 
and certain fear triumphed over doubtful hope, for 
their death as participants in the treachery was sure 
if the Spaniards should find it out before they re- 
vealed it. They decided as to themselves to change 
their design, and secretly going to Juan Ortiz they 
told him all that Vitachuco had told them. Juan 
hastened to repeat the revelation to the Adelantado. 
He at once called a council of all his officers and 
laid it before them ; and they all agreed that their 
best plan was to meet dissimulation with dissimula- 
tion, treachery with treachery, and to take Vitachuco 
in the very same trap that he had prepared for them. 
Orders were given the soldiers to be on their guard, 
but to continue in their seeming careless gayety, 
so as not to arouse suspicion ; and twelve of the 
strongest soldiers in the army were selected and 
kept in readiness to escort the Adelantado when- 
ever Vitachuco invited him to review the Indian 
muster. And so the day for the third, and, as 
Vitachuco thought, the last, act of his drama arrived 
— a bright, exhilarating morning. 



Vitachuco 59 

At an early hour the chief presented himself at 
the Spanish headquarters, and with a great show of 
courtesy prayed the Adelantado to grant him the 
favour of coming out into the open field to see his 
people drawn up in their battle array, so that, in- 
spired by so great a presence, they might wish to 
fight for the Spaniards with courage and spirit when- 
ever occasion offered. He added that he himself 
wished the Spanish general to see that his warriors 
could form in squadrons as well as those other war- 
riors on the other side of the world, about whom 
the Spaniards told such great stories. De Soto 
answered that he should like nothing better than to 
do what Vitachuco asked, but to make the sight still 
finer and to give the Indians themselves something 
to look at, he would order out his men, formed also 
in their squadrons of horse and foot, and the two 
armies could thus excite one another by their rivalry. 
The chief had not bargained for so much pomp and 
ceremony, and was rather taken aback by the pros- 
pect of it. But obstinate in his conviction of the 
superior strength and courage of his warriors, and 
sure of their being equal to destroying the Spaniards, 
no matter how well prepared they were, he accepted 
the proposed match. 

The two walked to the field together, each fol- 
lowed by his twelve picked men. The field, just 
outside the village, was a beautiful and spacious one. 
On the right hand, a dense forest closed it in ; on 
the left were two lakes, one in full view, small, 
round, and so deep that a man could not touch 



6o Hernando de Soto 

bottom five feet from the bank ; the other lake was 
more like a wide river flowing past, both ends being 
out of sight. Half-way between the forest and the 
lake stood Vitachuco's squadrons — noble looking 
warriors, with height magnificently increased by their 
superb war feathers. Their squadrons were formed 
with perfect military precision — files straight, ranks 
open, pickets properly stationed. The Spaniards 
eyed them with soldierly admiration. To all ap- 
pearances they were unarmed. 

The Spanish squadrons marched gayly in with 
their flags and music and took their position ; the 
infantry skirting the forest, the cavalry near the 
middle of the plain. In the breathless silence, and 
under the fixed gaze of the two armies, Vitachuco 
and De Soto walked forward together toward the 
spot where each was to give the signal to his men 
to seize the other. It was a game in which the first 
move won, and the Spaniard gave his signal first. 
His twelve men threw themselves upon Vitachuco, 
and although the twelve Indians as quickly jumped 
upon them, they could not wrest the chief from 
their grasp. At the same moment the trumpeter 
sounded the charge. De Soto, vaulting upon a 
horse held in readiness by a page, spurred upon the 
Indians with his battle-cry, the cavalry following. 

It was said of De Soto in Central America that 
he was fond of the sport of killing Indians, and he 
showed that day that the saying was a true one. 
He and his horsemen charged over the Indian 
squadrons as over a wheat-field, trampling, crushing. 



Vitachuco 6i 

slaying with their swords, right and left. And it 
was proof armour against naked skins ; Toledo 
blades against bows and arrows : the Indian files went 
down under them like rows of wheat under the 
sickle. Brave as they were, the moment came 
when they could stand it no longer. They broke 
and ran, some towards the forest, and those who 
could outrun the horses and dodge the crossbow- 
men, escaped. Some ran towards the long lake, and 
there also, those who distanced the horsemen jumped 
into it, and swimming under the water, escaped. 
The vanguard, as usual formed of the best and 
bravest, paid as usual the penalty of their position. 
The cavalry headed off their retreat either to the 
long lake or the forest, where there was some 
chance of escape. The only refuge open to them 
was the small lake, and some nine hundred managed 
to reach it and jump into it, the Spaniards spurring 
after them up to their horses' necks in the water. 
But the Indians swam out of reach. The Spaniards 
then surrounded the lake, the soldiers running from 
all over the plain to the bank. All day long they 
stood there trying to frighten the warriors into 
surrender, shouting threats to them, but shoot- 
ing only a few bolts from their crossbows, aimed 
not to kill, for the Indians were already, with no 
earthly chance of escape, held as captives. But all 
day long, desperate though their situation was, the 
surrounded warriors withstood their foe, shouting 
back their threats of defiance, swimming round and 
round. The Spanish soldiers related afterwards 



62 Hernando de Soto 

in Spain the perhaps incredible story that the war- 
riors ceased not to shoot at the Spaniards with 
their best aim until their arrows were exhausted ; 
and to shoot, a warrior would mount upon the 
backs of five or six of his companions, and send off 
arrow after arrow, until his quiver was exhausted, 
when he would drop down into the water and 
another would take his place. The water was too 
deep for standing; they had to keep swimming or 
drown. 

At sunset not one had surrendered. Night came 
on ; the Spaniards lighted fires and kept up their 
cordon, horse and foot stationed at regular inter- 
vals, so that not an Indian could hope to put foot 
on the bank either for rest or escape. Sometimes 
swimming stealthily under water, with a lily leaf 
held in his mouth to hide his head, a warrior would 
get safely up to the edge of the land ; but a lance 
thrust or a bolt from a crossbow would drive him 
back at once to deep water. The Spaniards thought 
that by keeping the Indians swimming all night, fa- 
tigue would force them to surrender. But, however 
much they exerted themselves to harass and torment, 
they could not exert themselves to the measure of 
the strength and spirit of the Indians. 

Midnight came, and the warriors had been fourteen 
hours in the water, and the water was now freezing 
cold ; but not one had yet surrendered. Juan Ortiz 
and the four Indian interpreters then came to the 
bank, and they laboured with their best heart and 
will, and by pleadings and persuasions and oaths to 



Vitachuco 6^ 

protect them, they coaxed one by one the most ex- 
hausted out of the water ; but so slowly that by day- 
light only fifty had given themselves up. After that, 
seeing that the Spaniards had kept their promises, 
and that none of the fifty had been killed, but that 
on the contrary they had received good treatment, 
others came forward, but so reluctantly and so much 
against their will, that, after swimming close in to 
the bank, many Vv'ould turn and swim back again to 
their comrades. But the love of life would draw 
them back again to the bank, and thus after a while 
they would surrender. About ten o'clock, two hun- 
dred came out in a body. They had been in the 
lake twenty-four hours and it was pitiable to see 
them — stiff with cold, spent with fatigue, hunger, 
and want of sleep. By three o'clock only seven re- 
mained in the lake, and neither the entreaties of the 
interpreters, nor the promises of the Adelantado, nor 
the example of those who had surrendered could 
prevail upon them to yield. On the contrary, they 
seemed to have recovered the courage the others had 
lost, and still swimming about, they could shout their 
defiant answers to the bank : " We ask not your 
promises, and fear not your threats of death." 
Their courage and endurance would beyond a doubt 
have ended only with their lives but that it seemed 
to the Adelantado inhumanity to permit men of such 
strength of soul as conquered the hearts even of 
their conquerors to perish. When their voices grew 
faint and finally ceased, he commanded twelve sol- 
diers, good swimmers, to swim into the lake with 



64 Hernando de Soto 

their swords In their mouths, and fetch the Indians 
out by force. It was done, the Spaniards seizing 
them by a leg or an arm or the hair and dragging 
them along to the shore, and throwing them upon 
the sward, where they lay stretched like the dead. 
They had been thirty hours in the water without as 
far as their conquerors knew having once put foot 
to the earth, or having received any other form of 
relief Carrying them to their quarters, the Span- 
iards used every means to restore them to conscious- 
ness. But the Indians did not revive until near 
midnight. 

When Vitachuco, neavily guarded in his own 
cabin, heard of the end of his great attempt, that his 
noblest and best warriors had not only been con- 
quered but were now captives and slaves of the 
Spaniards, forced to cook for them and serve them, 
he gave himself up to the unrestrained fury of his 
passions, and by day and night he thought of 
nothing but vengeance, vengeance, vengeance. And 
now, precipitated, as it were, into an abysm of blind 
ferocity, he wrought out his own destruction and 
that of his people. The idea came to him in his 
lurid frenzy that, as these nine hundred warriors 
captured from the lake were picked men, the bravest 
of his braves, they alone might suffice to accomplish 
what his thousands had failed to do. At any rate 
he counted that each one of them was good to kill 
one Spaniard, as he himself was good to kill one — 
the Adelantado. And man for man, there were just 
about as many Indians in the village as Spaniards. 



Vitachuco 6^ 

The wild exploit once suggested, he rushed into it, 
without knowing whether his warriors were in chains 
or free, whether they had weapons or not. He 
himself needed no other weapons than his own 
strong fists ; and so he decided it must be with the 
others. The four Indian boys who served him In 
his cabin prison were sent secretly through the 
camp to pass the word round that on the third 
day from the following, precisely at noon, each 
warrior was to be ready to kill the master to 
whom he had been allotted. The signal to begin 
would be a war-whoop that he, Vitachuco, would 
give — a whoop that he promised would be loud 
and clear enough to be heard from one end of the 
village to the other. The warriors sent answer that 
they would do as he bid or die In the effort. 

It was just one week after the last attempt. The 
midday meal was ending; Vitachuco, having been 
pardoned and reinstated in favor, occupied his usual 
place at the officers' table, at the head of the long 
bench, on the right hand of the Adelantado. As 
he finished eating, he stretched himself full length 
upon the bench, and began to twist and turn his 
body from side to side, to clinch and open his 
hands, stretch one arm and then the other, draw 
his fists up to his shoulders, and strike them out 
again with all his strength until the joints cracked 
like snapping reeds. Then springing to his feet 
with lightning quickness, he seized the Adelantado 
by the collar with his left hand, and with his 
clinched right gave him such a blow over the face 



66 Hernando de Soto 

and mouth that De Soto hung Hmp in his grasp 
hke a child. FHnging him to the earth, Vitachuco 
jumped upon him with both feet, giving a war-whoop 
so clear, shrill, and loud that it was heard for miles 
around. It was his last call to his men. The 
Spanish officers, drawing their swords, ten or twelve 
blades plunged into his body ere the mouth closed, 
and Vitachuco fell dead upon his enemy. The offi- 
cers were none too soon. Another blow from that 
fist would have finished the commander. De Soto, 
unconscious, the blood streaming from eyes, nose, 
and mouth, looked as if a sledge-hammer had 
struck him in his face; his nose was flat, jaws were 
shattered, teeth knocked out. 

And now from all over the camp rose the sound 
of brave fighting. As Vitachuco's cry pierced the 
air, every Indian rushed upon his master with what- 
ever utensil or missile he had in his hand or could 
seize. Pots were jerked from their hooks, and their 
contents dashed over heads, scalding away the whole 
face from men. Tongs, pokers, fire-irons, red hot 
from the fire, burned away brows and nostrils, and 
branded backs. Plates, dishes, brooms, chairs, tables, 
jugs, were smashed with intent to kill. Some Span- 
iards fell stunned at one stroke. Many, like De Soto, 
had their faces crushed and teeth dashed out by 
clinched fists. Many were flung upon the ground and 
kicked and thumped and so left for dead. The Indians 
kept their promise to their chief They did as he 
bade them, wielding their fists and grotesque weapons 
with all the best passion that could fire the hearts of 



Vitachuco 67 

men, and they died in the effort. The first moment 
of surprise over, the Spaniards, calHng to one another, 
seized their weapons, and jumping upon horses, 
were not long in having the Indians at their mercy. 
And no mercy did they show. Every man of them 
was killed. Not one of them was left alive, which 
was a great pity, as the Spaniards themselves bore 
testimony ; for they were brave and true warriors, 
doing all that men could for their chief and their 
people. In all, only four Spaniards were killed, 
but numbers were seriously wounded ; and, indeed, 
there was hardly a man in the army without a burn, 
bruise, cut, or welt on some part of the body. And 
lucky it was for the Spaniards, as they acknowledged, 
that most of their captives were in chains, for, if 
all had been free, brave and strong as they were, 
although unarmed, man to man against their foes, 
they would have gone dangerously far towards 
making good their chief's call upon them. When 
the conflict was over, every Spaniard brought what 
slaves he had in chains into the public square, where 
platoons of halberdiers despatched them. 

As for the Adelantado, his injuries were painful 
and long in healing. For twenty days his swollen, 
disfigured face was kept in bandages and plasters, 
and it was a month before he was able to eat any 
but soft food.^ 

1 The village of Vitachuco can be located only vaguely, as being in the province of 
Apalache. 



CHAPTER VII 



APALACHE 



FOUR days later, with their bodies sore and 
stiff, and their heads in bandages, the Span- 
iards withdrew from the bloody village, glad 
enough to leave it behind. But they soon found 
that only the village was left behind, not the 
people, nor the fierce, indomitable spirit of resist- 
ance. Seventy-five miles, as they counted it, from 
Vitachuco's village, lay the village of the next 
province, Osachile.^ The country was pleasant to 
the eye ; easy woodland, with long stretches of 
fields of standing corn, overrun with pumpkins and 
beans ; but it was a hornet's nest to march through. 
From every mile of forest and field Indians 
swarmed in furious hordes, desperately throwing 
away ten lives to wound one horse or one man. 
The Spaniards, also maddened at last beyond them- 
selves by such fierce hatred, struck back as savage 
against savage, chasing and running down the Indians 
like wild hogs, and sticking their lances through 
them, throwing one wretch in his agony aside to 

' Irving suggests that the river Oscilla may take its name from that old Indian 
name and village. 

68 



Apalache 69 

spur after another, taking no prisoners, killing all 
they saw. The route could be traced by the drop- 
ping of dead bodies, tike the route of Hop o' my 
Thumb in the fairy tale by the dropping of white 
pebbles. The Osachile village (to follow the Span- 
ish chronicles, which give the same name to tribe, 
village, and chief) was silent and bare, not a liv- 
ing thing to be seen in It. It stood on the bank 
of a river and was like all the Indian villages seen 
in Florida — to see one was to see all, and the de- 
scription of one serves for the description of all — 
but the mound of the chief's cabin was more con- 
siderable than any seen before, and was indeed a 
fortress. It was from twelve to eighteen feet high, 
with room on top for ten or twelve cabins. A wide 
path paved with logs laid flat upon the earth led 
by such easy stages to the summit that the horses 
of the Spaniards easily ascended and descended it. 
The sides, steep and straight, were walled in by a 
stockade of stout logs, which also extended up, the 
sides of the path. 

The Spaniards remained here only long enough 
to ambush some slaves to replace those lost in 
Vitachuco's village, and these were carried along, as 
the others had been, with chains fastened at one end 
to iron collars about their necks and attached at the 
other to the belts of the troopers. But the Span- 
iards complained that sometimes, when sent into the 
forest for wood, the slaves killed their troopers and 
ran away with their chains ; and sometimes, at night, 
they filed or broke their chains with a piece of stone. 



yo Hernando de Soto 

and so made their escape. The women and young 
boys, when they were a hundred leagues from their 
country, were loosed from their chains and thence- 
forth they always served their masters faithfully. 

The march from Osachile was towards Apalache, 
the great province of which the Spaniards had heard 
marvellous tales ever since they entered the coun- 
try ; tales, not only of its fertility and plenty, but 
of its brave, indomitable people. As had been 
shouted about Acuera, flying Indians now shouted 
threats of Apalache at their pursuers : " There you 
will find men to kill you ! " After marching three 
days through the neutral forest that separated the 
two provinces, the army came to the frontier line 
and demarcation of Apalache. This was a swamp 
of such dimensions, so vast, so impenetrable, that 
the Spaniards ever afterward called it simply the 
" Great Swamp " ; ^ all other swamps encountered 
dwindled by comparison into utter littleness. De 
Soto halted his army in the open space that lay be- 
fore its sheer, precipitous heights of trees and vines, 
one massive green mountain of foliage, and, as the 
day was yet early, sent a hundred men through the 
only opening he could discover to reconnoitre what 
lay within and beyond ; and if they found water, to 
sound its depth. The path, barely wide enough 
for two men abreast, wound like a serpent between 
the Iiuge trunks of gigantic trees wedged one against 
another in the dank, damp soil ; no light or sight 

^ By some authorities supposed to be the grejt swamp of Okefinoicce ; by 
others, the Ohahichee swamp. 



Apalache 71 

of day — nothing visible overhead in the subterranean 
gloom but the dropping coils and loops of gaunt 
black vines, the path lying at the bottom of it like 
a trail through a chasm. 

The detachment had gone but a short distance in 
it when they saw ahead Indians prepared and de- 
termined to resist. The path was so narrow and the 
growth so impenetrable that on neither side could 
any fighting be done except by the two foremost 
men in each file. The Spaniards therefore placed 
two of their best armoured men in front, and behind 
them two crossbowmen ; and so, the one pair using 
their swords steadily from behind their shields, the 
other driving their bolts over their comrades' 
shoulders, they drove the Indians along, step by 
step, through two miles of the crawling, twisting 
way, until suddenly, through a narrow aperture, 
they burst into a broad sheet of water. Here, where 
they could spread out, a sharp struggle followed, 
with killing and wounding, good shots and fine cuts 
on both sides. The Indians held their own ; the 
Spaniards could neither sound the water in front 
nor advance one step farther with their reconnois- 
sance ; and so they sent hurried word to the Ade- 
lantado. He came at once himself, with reinforce- 
ments, the best foot-soldiers in the army. The 
Indians also sent for reinforcements, and now the 
fight that followed was fast and furious. Both 
sides met in water up to their waists, clambering 
over fallen logs, their feet slipping and sliding over 
roots and cypress knees. The Spaniards, knowing 



72 Hernando de Soto 

that it would not do to turn back without finding 
the passage through the water, fought doggedly, 
never yielding an inch, but edging slowly forward, 
the Indians as doggedly holding their own — or try- 
ing to — but forced step by step backward through 
the water, and finally driven across and up the bank 
on the other side. 

A clear, narrow path was discovered beneath 
the water, which led to where felled trees bridged 
the deep part of the channel, and on the other 
side of this a path under the water led onward 
to where the gigantic, impenetrable forest began 
again. De Soto at once returned to the camp 
to make his preparations for the next day. Two 
hundred picked men, provided with axes and 
hatchets, were ordered to get ready to make their 
way again through the forest and across the water, 
and clear a space on the opposite side for a camp. 
As before, the men in armour were to lead, pro- 
tecting the archers behind. Two hours before day 
the start was made, each soldier carrying his rations 
for the day, a handful of parched or boiled corn, 
in his bosom. With all possible speed, they 
filed through the path and reached the water. 
To their surprise there was neither sight nor 
sound of opposition. That the Spaniards should 
dare in the darkness of night to hazard the 
difficult passage had never occurred to the Indians, 
and they had not prepared for it. When day- 
light came, however, and they found that the 
Spaniards had crossed the bridge, they made the 



Apalache 73 

forest ring with their fury. Yelling like demons, 
they rushed into the water to defend the rest of the 
way, and fought with more than redoubled ferocity. 
The struggle was too fierce to be a long one. The 
Spaniards stood stoutly where they were, and as on 
the day before, the Indians were forced to give way 
before armour and steel weapons. Step by step the 
naked mass of them was driven back, out of the 
water and up the bank ; there was no way of retreat 
except into the narrow path, through which they 
could not fly except in single file. The Spaniards 
pushed and crushed them all into it one upon 
another, and then fifty men marching in after them 
closed the entrance. The others set at once to 
work to clear the space for a camp. And so both 
sides remained during the rest of the day — the baf- 
fled and enraged Indians sending out war-whoops 
and yells of defiance and insult, the Spaniards cut- 
ting trees and burning brush. When night came on, 
there was not much change, for the Indians kept 
up their din, and the Spaniards sat or lay where 
they were, and made no attempt at sleeping. Day- 
light brought the Adelantado, with the rest of the 
army and baggage following slowly and painfully. 
Although there was no opposition or obstacle from 
the savages, there was from the narrow path, 
through which men, horses, and baggage could 
advance only one by one and at a crawling pace. 
It took all day for the whole of the army to reach 
the clearing and pitch their camp. And that night, 
again, the whoops, yells, and cries of the imprisoned 



74 Hernando de Soto 

Indians made sleeping an impossibility. The 
guard in the defile stood watch behind fixed lances 
and swords, their fiDod being passed to them from 
hand to hand. As soon as day dawned, the army 
was put in motion, and again advanced, pressing 
by physical fiDrce the Indians before them, step by 
step, keeping them at exactly the length of their 
swords' points and no more. 

The last stretch of the jungle was passed and put 
behind, and the woodland opened clear again. The 
Indians were now foot and elbow free, and well they 
profited by it. Creeping from tree to tree, hiding 
behind bushes, crawling on the ground with the 
noiselessness and quickness of serpents, they picked 
off the Spaniards one by one ; wounded them by 
scores with sudden storms of arrows ; surprised 
them now on one side, now on the other, now in 
front, now in the rear, unceasingly, incessantly. The 
Spaniards, jaded for want of sleep and dogged and 
teased into ill temper, accused the trees of turning 
themselves into warriors, and the skies of raining 
down arrows against them. The woodland was 
clear, as has been said, but not clear enough for the 
horses to act, and the crossbowmen and archers 
seemed utterly useless; for, as usual, while one of 
them was making one shot, an Indian made six or 
seven; indeed, one arrow had scarcely left the string 
before another was readv aimed upon it. The few 
open spaces where the horsemen might have had a 
chance the Indians had blocked with felled trees, 
barricades of timber, and branches tied from tree 



Apalache 75 

to tree with vines. As for the canebrakes and 
thickets, otherwise impassable, they had cunningly 
perforated them with paths, like trap-doors, all the 
length of the route, and in and out of these they 
darted incessantly, and never without grimaces, 
jeers, and insults, reminding the Spaniards over and 
over again how in this very route they had met and 
defeated Pamphilo de Narvaez eleven years before, 
and as they had done to Pamphilo de Narvaez and 
his army, so would they do to De Soto and his. 
But, notwithstanding all, the Spaniards continued 
their advance, slow as it was, and finally came out 
into the open country. 

Thanking God aloud, the troopers gave rein to 
their horses and to their tempers. The tables were 
now turned in their favour, and the Indians paid 
for their harrying and insults and jeers, their taunts 
about Pamphilo de Narvaez, and their boasts that 
they would destroy this army as they had done that 
one. Every Indian seen was run down, and few 
were taken alive. 

That evening, camp was pitched in an open field 
which marked the beginning of the cultivated lands 
of Apalache, so famed for their fertility throughout 
Florida. But the Indians had no mind either to 
rest themselves or to let their invaders rest after their 
toilsome days and sleepless nights. All night long 
they kept up their demoniacal tumult ; not one 
hour of it but was broken by an attack, or a feigned 
attack. With day, the weary army resumed its 
march, passing through mile after mile of rich fields 



76 Hernando de Soto 

of corn, pumpkins, beans, and other vegetables, 
extending as far as eye could reach on either side, 
and dotted with groups of dwellings sufficient, the 
Spaniards estimated, for a large population. Indeed, 
experience proved it, for from every cornfield and 
cabin-group darted out band after band of warriors, 
rabid to wound if they could not kill. The Span- 
iards, once more astounded and infuriated by such 
persistent ferocity, broke through all discipline and 
order, and slaughtered without command and with- 
out mercy, each man for himself. But their insen- 
sate cruelty was in vain, for the more they killed, 
the more they had to kill, the Indians, as they saw 
themselves so hopelessly overmatched, waxing only 
the more daring, the more eager to lose life. 

After the cornfields came another stretch of wood- 
land, and after these a deep river running between 
steep banks cut athwart the advance — a difficult 
crossing and one that the Indians had done their best 
to make more difficult. Barricades stopped the ap- 
proach of horses, while a formidable palisade bris- 
tling with warriors stood in readiness for the foot- 
soldiers. The Indians did not await the attack. 
Seething out from their palisade, they threw them- 
selves before the Spaniards. The horsemen, jump- 
ing from their horses, dashed upon the barricades 
with their battle-axes, to cut them away. The com- 
bat was a brave one on both sides, and despite 
their armour, the Spaniards fell in numbers, for the 
Indians fought like wild beasts, or desperate men 
making their last effiart. But the Spaniards fought 



Apalache 77 

like brave men who knew the danger they were 
in, and feared it. So they won the victory. Cross- 
ing the river, the army marched two leagues farther, 
still through a flat country of cornfields and scat- 
tered cabins, and pitched the camp far from the 
forest, hoping to get some sleep at last ; four days 
and nights now they had been constantly on the 
watch and in the fight. But they slept as little 
that night as the others. The Indians, under cover 
of darkness, crept out from the forest to keep up 
their alarms and din of war-cries ; and surely, the 
Spaniards said, they maintained the reputation that 
the people of Apalache were valiant and vigilant 
above all other people of Florida. 

At the close of the fifth day's march, the army at 
last reached its goal, the great or chief village of 
Apalache. It was deserted ; so in its two hundred 
and fifty cabins the Spaniards found at last a comfort- 
able and much-needed rest. The Adelantado, how- 
ever, was not a commander to give his men much 
rest. He at once set them to reDairino- the walls of 
the village and gathering provisions from neigh- 
bouring villages for the winter, while squadrons 
were sent out in different directions to reconnoitre 
the country. Two of them returned within the 
fixed limit of time with about the same report — 
a fine country, fertile lands well supplied with food, 
and quantities of villages filled with people ; no 
swamps nor formidable forests. 

Very different was the report made by Juan 
d'Anasco, who had been sent towards the south in 



78 Hernando de Soto 

search of the sea, which the Indians said lay about 
thirty leagues from Apalache. The guide was a 
young Indian who had volunteered for the service 
with many protestations of fidelity to the Christians. 
After travelling two days over a good road through 
a level country, D'Afiasco and his troop came to 
a village named Aute. It was deserted but well 
filled with provisions. Supplying themselves for 
four days, they proceeded onward, following the 
same good road. The Indian guide then began 
to play them false, leading them out of the road 
into the swamp where the fallen trees and tangled 
undergrowth distinguished the mire from " pools of 
land," as the Spaniards called them, clear, open 
spaces covered with grass, that looked solid enough 
but sank under foot like veritable pools of water. 
And under foot, ambushed all through water and 
mire, there grew a bramble bearing long, upright, 
sharp-pointed thorns, that wounded the feet of the 
horses and men most cruelly; and do what they 
would they could not escape nor avoid them. 

Five days, however, the Spaniards struggled 
through the swamps, following the guide, who turned 
them hither and thither, first in one direction then 
in another, circuiting and doubhng. Three times 
they came near enough the sea to hear the sound of 
the waves, but each time the guide turned from it 
inland. The provisions gave out and D'Afiasco 
decided to return to Aute for more. But the way 
back to Aute was even more vexatious than the way 
to the swamp had been. The only path to follow 



Apalache 79 

was in the trail of their own footprints, and the 
trampling of the troop in the soft earth had made 
a narrow furrow of water, where men and horses 
sank to their knees and bogged at every step. 
They reached Ante half dead with hunger, as men 
would be who had eaten nothing but herbs and 
roots for four days. 

Supplying themselves again for five or six days, 
they set out again upon their quest, not by a 
better way but by the worst that could be found 
by the devilish maliciousness of the guide. And 
now, either in pursuance of an original design, or 
grown desperate at the futility of his efforts to 
discourage the Spaniards in their obstinate per- 
sistence, or acting upon an insane impulse with 
the recklessness of his race, the guide one night, 
while the soldiers lay sleeping upon the ground, 
seized a firebrand and beat one of them in the 
face. The other soldiers were for killing him at 
once, but D'Anasco interfered, saying that the 
guide must be borne with, as he was the only 
one they had, and they could not procure another. 
When all were asleep again, the Indian repeated 
his assault. The soldiers then fell upon him and 
beat him unmercifully; but the Indian undauntedly 
made still another attack upon a sleeping Spaniard 
before day. The Spaniards in their rage hardly 
knew what to do with him ; but for the moment 
they satisfied themselves with beating him again, 
and chaining him to one of their number, who was 
to have particular watch and guard over him. As 



8o Hernando de Soto 

soon as it was light the party set forth, and the 
guide trudged along quietly enough for a short 
while. Then springing like a panther upon the 
soldier he was chained to, and seizing him in his 
arms, he lifted him high up in the air and threw him 
upon the ground, and jumped upon him with both 
feet to stamp him. The Spaniards now took their 
swords to the Indian and soon left him on the ground 
for dead, with a hound loosed upon him. They 
had barely moved away when they heard the most 
terrible howling from the hound. Running back 
to see what was the matter, instead of finding the 
Indian dead and half eaten by the dog, they found 
the animal helpless in the hands of the savage, who 
had thrust his thumbs in the dog's mouth, one on 
each side, and had torn the jaws apart. The Span- 
iards again used their swords, and one of them, tak- 
ing out a knife, cut off the Indian's hands, and even 
then so firm was their grip they could not be un- 
clasped from the dog's mouth. 

And now the Spaniards stood confused and un- 
decided, not knowing what to do, doubting, most 
of them, whether they should ever make their way 
back from the swamp. Faithful Chance, however, 
the friend of all, came to the rescue by sending a 
straggling Indian that way. Fearing the fate of his 
dog-eaten tribesman, he quickly enough answered 
the questions put to him, and by signs gave the 
Spaniards to understand that he could guide them, 
not only to the sea, but to the very place where 
Pamphilo de Narvaez had made his boats and 



Apalache 8 1 

embarked from Florida. Although the sound of the 
waves breaking over the beach could be distinctly 
heard, never in their lives, he said, would they reach 
the sea from where they were ; they must return to 
Aute and strike out in a different direction. This 
they did, and taking a smooth, easy road, came to 
the sea within two leagues of the village, coming 
out upon the shore of the spacious, beautiful bay of 
Apalache. And guiding them still farther along the 
shore, the Indian led them indeed to the site of 
the last camp of the unhappy Pamphilo de Narvaez, 
the place where he and his men had made the boats 
in which they had sailed to shipwreck and death. 
There was the forge upon which they had turned 
their stirrups into bolts and nails, the heaps of ashes 
still piled about. There were the hollow logs, the 
water-troughs of the horses, the racks that had held 
their feed, and lying about were the skulls of the 
same horses slaughtered to furnish skins for sails, 
hair for ropes, and flesh for food, as Cabeza de Vaca 
has described in his relation. 

D'Anasco and his men searched in all the hollows 
of the trees for letters or papers, and examined the 
bark for names, dates, or marks, but with no success. 
They followed the shores of the bay to the sea, 
and at the ebb of the tide they paddled out in 
some old canoes that they found upturned on the 
beach, but nothing more was found of the unfortu- 
nate expedition. The channel was sounded and 
found of good depth for large ships. Fixing sig- 
nals to the tops of the highest trees, so that ships 



82 Hernando de Soto 

sailing along the coast might see and recognize them, 
and taking also in writing a description of the place, 
Juan d'Aiiasco returned to the camp. The troop 
had been absent so long that the Adelantado felt 
much anxiety about it, but the joy of his welcome 
was more than doubled when he heard of so fine 
a harbour near the camp. His satisfaction, in fact, 
was complete, for no discovery could have been 
better for the conquest of the country. He decided 
forthwith to bring his caravels there, and the men 
left at Hirrihigua's village to Apalache, where he 
made up his mind to pass the winter. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE RIDE OF THE THIRTY CAVALIERS 

JUAN D'ANASCO was selected to carry the 
orders to Calderon. A daring man was needed, 
and so far the cavalier and gentleman from 
Seville had distinguished himself above all other 
captains in the expedition. His orders were to 
choose twenty-nine cavaliers to accompany him, and 
to make his preparations as quickly as possible. The 
army had faced perils enough in its hundred and fifty 
leagues of march from Hirrihigua to Apalache, but 
how much greater would the perils be now when there 
were only thirty horsemen to encounter them, and 
when they were bound to find the Indians better pre- 
pared and more revengeful and determined even than 
when the army passed through ! These considera- 
tions, however, were not the ones to make the thirty 
cavaliers selected by D'Anasco shrink from the expe- 
dition ; on the contrary, they seemed stimulated by 
them into greater alacrity for it. The preparations 
were quickly made, and a few days later, it was on 
the 20th of October, they rode out of the camp 
several hours before day. They were equipped as 
lightly as possible, in helmets and coats of mail, car- 

83 



84 Hernando de Soto 

rying only their lances in their hands and, hanging 
from their saddles, a small wallet of food for them- 
selves and their horses. Their plan was to travel at 
full speed, galloping their horses wherever the road 
permitted, and to kill every Indian met, so that no 
news or alarm could get ahead of them, for the dan- 
ger most to be feared was that the Indians, warned 
of their coming, would ambush them. The first 
day they killed two Indians and covered the eleven 
leagues that lay between Apalache and the great 
swamp, which they crossed without opposition or 
molestation. This was a rare and unhoped-for 
good fortune ; for a very few Indians in that narrow 
defile throuQ-h the forest or in the water-stretch 
would have been enough to kill or maim some .of 
the horses, and the loss of even one horse might 
mean the destruction of the troop. They stopped 
at night in an open field, away from all forest or 
trees, sleeping in relays, ten at a time. Long before 
day they started again ; and as before, galloping 
when they could, they cleared the twelve leagues of 
the uninhabited reservation that lay between the two 
provinces of Apalache and Osachile. 

As they neared the village of Osachile they thought 
in terror that the Indians might have heard of their 
coming and be on the watch for them. Turning 
aside they waited until midnight, and then riding up 
to it as noiselessly as possible, they spurred their 
horses, and galloping through it at full rein, were 
out of it by the time the first hoof-beat was heard. 
A league the other side of it, they again turned aside 



The Ride of the Thirty Cavaliers 85 

and rested the few remaining hours of the night, and 
at dawn mounted again, and galloped on without 
drawing rein, for now they were in the region of 
cabins and cornfields, and their danger was getting 
more and more imminent. The five leagues to the 
Osachile River cost the horses dear, but the good 
animals stood the expense bravely. Gonzalo Sil- 
vestre, always in the lead on his noble chestnut, was 
the first to catch sight of the river, and fear was in 
his heart lest he should see it more swollen than 
when the army crossed it. But instead of more, 
there was less water in it, and in his joy he rode 
straight into it just as he was, without stopping, 
and swam his horse over to the other bank. When 
his companions saw him there, they also gave way 
to their sense of relief, for each man had been carry- 
ing in his heart the same secret dread of the river. 
And now the village of Vitachuco lay before them, 
and if they had to fight their way through it, as they 
feared they would have to do, knowing the people, 
the thirty of them would never come out of it alive. 
They therefore agreed with one another that under 
no circumstances should any of the number stop to 
fight, but all should push ahead in any way possi- 
ble without check or pause. And so they galloped 
towards it, but their fears died away before their eyes. 
The village, in Indian superstition a cursed and ill- 
fated spot, had been burned and destroyed, the walls 
thrown to the ground, and the dead bodies of the 
Indians, as if unworthy of sepulture, left scattered all 
about, just as the Spaniards had killed them. 



86 Hernando de Soto 

The troopers had hardly left the ghastly scene be- 
hind them when they came upon two warriors hunt- 
ing, and never dreaming of seeing Christians again. 
One jumped under a large, low-branched tree stand- 
ing near ; the other made a dash to reach the forest, 
but before he could reach it the Spaniards had lanced 
him in the back. The warrior under the tree, fit- 
ting an arrow to his bow, faced the Spaniards. The 
horses could not get under the branches, but, stung 
by his courage, some of the Spaniards wanted to 
dismount and attack him on foot; Juan d'Anasco 
would not consent. " It is neither brave nor pru- 
dent," he said, " to kill a desperate man at the risk 
of the life of a man or a horse at a time when both 
are so necessary to us ; for, as you know, we are not 
provided with remedies even to cure a wound." 
As he was in the lead, while he spoke, he galloped 
his horse in a wide circle away from the road which 
ran near the Indian and the tree. The warrior took 
aim at the face of the first, second, third, and at 
each trooper galloping by him, and when the last had 
passed, and he saw that none had attacked him, but 
all fied from him, he shouted after them, daring and 
taunting them, calling them cowards and poltroons 
who, thirty of them on horseback, had not dared to 
attack one warrior on foot. And he stood his ground 
under the tree with more honour, the Spaniards said 
bitterly, than had the thirty who avoided him. As 
they were galloping on, a moment later a great out- 
cry of alarm broke upon their ears from the corn- 
fields all around, the Indians calling to one another 



The Ride of the Thirty CavaHers 87 

to head the Christians and cut them off. The 
Spaniards saved themselves from their peril, as from 
many another, by the speed of their good horses, 
which, galloping steadily on, distanced even the 
cries of their enemies. 

On this, the third day of their journey, they 
made over seventeen leagues. The next day they 
made seventeen leagues again, in addition also rac- 
ing down and lancing seven Indians, At night- 
fall, they rested in an open plain until a little after 
midnight, when they mounted again, and by day- 
light had travelled five leagues, reaching the river 
Ocali, where, it will be remembered, the hound 
Bruto was shot to death. The Spaniards had some 
hope of finding it, like the Osachile, with lower 
water than when the army had crossed it. But not 
so ; a good while before getting to it, they found 
that it had not only filled its banks, but had over- 
flowed the land beyond. And when they came up 
to it, the current was pouring down so swift and 
strong and turbid, twisting and circling everywhere 
in such angry eddies and whirlpools, that it was 
most ugly to look at, and how much more to swim 
across ! And to heighten the critical peril, faint 
war-whoops and cries of a new alarm could be 
heard, and not from behind alone, but from both 
sides of the river, the cries of Indians opening the 
chase. The lives of the Spaniards hung upon the 
time that the swift-footed enemies took to reach 
the bank of the river. And every moment the cries 
grew louder. 



88 Hernando de Soto 

In a flash the men decided what to do — and did 
it, without waiting for orders. Twelve of the best 
swimmers, stripping themselves to their casques and 
coats of mail over their shirts, with their lances in 
their hands, jumped their horses, stripped also, into 
the stream and swam over to the other bank, to 
hold it before the Indians could get to it. Fourteen 
others, with their best haste, cut branches from the 
trees, and tied them together into a raft to ferry- 
over the saddles, bridles, clothing, and the men who 
could not swim. The four remaining horsemen 
stationed themselves to resist the Indians coming 
from behind. The horses, as if they too recognized 
the emergency, hastened to obey orders with human 
intelligence, stepping into the water without balk- 
ing, and swimming across as told, to the no small 
relief of their masters. 

Eleven of the swimmers came out safely on the 
other side by an opening in the bank ; the horse of 
the twelfth, Juan Lopez Cacho, missed the opening, 
and unable to stem the current and turn back, 
Cacho let him go down with it, looking for some 
other break to land in ; but although he tried him 
at several places, the bank was so steep that the 
horse could not gain a foothold, and would always 
slip back. Juan Lopez then tried to return to the 
side he started from ; but the horse, which had been 
swimming a long time without stopping, was too 
spent with fatigue, and his master had to call for 
help to the men who were making the raft. Four 
of them sprang into the water, and seizing the bridle 



The Ride of the Thirty Cavaliers 89 

and swimming with it drew both him and his horse 
out in safety upon the bank ; and just in time, for 
both were too exhausted to help themselves longer. 
The raft, ready in an incredibly short time, was 
thrown out into the stream, and two swimmers at 
once started to the other side with a rope to haul 
it over. 

And now the war-whoops and cries, coming 
nearer and nearer, broke through the trees, and on 
both banks at once the Indians rushed upon their 
enemies in their wildest impetus of noise and fury. 
On one bank the eleven cavaliers held them back ; 
on the other, the four. The raft in the mean- 
time flew between the two landings, carrying over 
first the garments of the eleven cavaliers, who 
were calling for them loudly, for a north wind had 
arisen, and catching them wet and with nothing on 
but shirts and coats of mail, was stiffening them 
with cold. Then the other baggage was thrown 
upon it and hurried over. Those who could swim 
did so, to save time, climbing out upon the other 
bank, and running to reinforce the eleven hard at 
work upon the ever-increasing numbers against 
them. At the last trip of the raft, Gonzalo Sil- 
vestre and another horseman only remained on 
guard. While his companion jumped upon the 
raft, pulling his horse by the rein into the water for 
him to swim alongside, Gonzalo charged upon the 
Indians and drove them back, then returning at full 
speed, rode his horse into the water as he was, bri- 
dled and saddled, and jumping upon the raft cast 



90 Hernando de Soto 

loose the rope that held it. They were half-way 
across the river before the Indians reached the bank 
again to hurl their shouts of disappointment and 
rage after them. The whole troop, charging and 
lancing, soon got rid of the Indians opposing them 
and galloped away from them. 

It was now about two o'clock in the afternoon. 
Instead of going round the Ocali village they turned 
into it, for Juan Lopez Cacho, from his hard work and 
long stay in the water, and exposure to the cold wind 
afterwards, had become stiff and numb, and sat his 
horse like a statue of marble, unable to move hand 
or foot, and his companions were forced to halt to 
do something for his relief. The village seemed de- 
serted; but they dismounted in the open square, not 
daring to enter a cabin, fearing an ambush. They 
hurriedly made four large fires, and laid Juan Lopez 
de Cacho in the heat of them, wrapped in all the 
coats of his companions. One man gave him a dry 
shirt. It seemed a miracle to find one more shirt 
than they had on their backs, and it was the greatest 
comfort that could have been given Juan Lopez. 
The rest of the day was passed in anxiety and per- 
plexity ; they feared to travel with Juan Lopez in 
the condition he was in, and feared, if they delayed, 
that the Indians would get tidings of their coming. 
But they decided to put the life of their companion 
above the thoughts of their own safety, and with 
this set to drying their saddles and clothing, giving 
their horses their fill of corn from the Indian gran- 
aries, and resupplying their own wallets. At night 



The Ride of the Thirty Cavaliers 91 

they stationed sentinels all around the village. Near 
midnight came from them the word of alarm. 
Noises in the distance were heard, as of a great band 
of Indians. Fortunately Juan Lopez had shown 
signs of returning consciousness. His companions 
hastily put him, wrapped as he was, on his horse 
and tied him in his saddle, for he could not hold 
himself upright. He looked like the dead Cid, 
sallying forth from Valencia to conquer in that 
famous battle. A companion took the reins of his 
horse, and as secretly as possible the troop left the 
village, and galloped so well that by daylight they 
were six leagues away from it. 

Pushing onward without a stop all day, they 
spurred like couriers through the inhabited regions, 
killing all the Indians they met, drawing rein only 
when they came to uninhabited tracts, to let their 
horses breathe against the next run. Thus, on the 
seventh day, they came into the perilous and dreaded 
province of Acuera. As they were riding along in 
intensest strain of watchfulness, one of the men 
sickened and died in his saddle. His comrades 
had heard him sigh once or twice and groan, but 
thinking only of the Indians, they paid no heed. 
Now, with remorse enough in their hearts, they dug 
a grave with their hatchets and buried him, and sor- 
rowfully rode on again. By sunset they arrived at the 
great swamp. It also was swollen with water and 
had become a vast lake, with great bayous pouring 
into and out of it. They camped upon a spot of 
dry land on the edge of it. 

It was bitter cold, with a north wind blowing, and 



92 Hernando de Soto 

they suffered so keenly that, despite their fear of the 
Indians, they were forced to build a fire, and with 
this on their minds even those off watch could not 
rest. Indeed, by this time the strain upon their 
vigilance had become such that no man could 
close his eyes in sleep a second without starting up 
thinking he heard an alarm. About midnight, the 
comrade of the man who had died during the day 
sickened and died too, almost in a moment, and as 
usual, says the chronicle, there were not lacking 
fools to cry : " The plague ! The plague ! " Three 
or four of the troop, forgetting all their past courage, 
ran away panic-stricken, at full speed. Gomez Arias, 
the second in command, like the man of sense and 
judgment he was, called after them : " What more 
plague do you want than we've got already in this 
expedition ! Plague enough we have in it that you 
cannot run away from, no matter how much you 
try, or how fast you go ; and if you do run away 
from us, where do you think of going for ref- 
uge ? Do you think perchance you can run to 
Seville ? " This brought the cowards back, and they 
fell on their knees and joined in the prayers for the 
dead that the others were reciting ; but no one would 
touch the body to bury it, for all persisted that the 
man had died of the plague. 

Relieved enough were they when daylight came, 
and they could set about getting through the swamp. 
The eight men among them who could not swim 
took the saddles, bridles, and clothing of the others 
over the bridge. The other twenty, naked as they 



The Ride of the Thirty Cavaliers 93 

were born, undertook to drive the horses into the 
water ; but when the animals felt how cold it was, 
they would not go into the deep part where they had 
to swim. Tying ropes to their halters, some of the 
men swam out ahead and pulled, while others be- 
hind beat the horses with sticks ; but the trembling 
brutes planted their four feet firmly on the ground, 
let the blows rain on their backs, and would not 
budge. When at last one or two did yield to 
the pulling and driving so much as to swim a few 
strokes, unable to stand the cold, they turned round 
and made for the bank, dragging the swimmers 
after them. And so, for more than three hours the 
twenty Spaniards, standing in the water waist deep, 
worked and laboured ; but do what they would, and 
with all their energy and skill, trying first one horse 
and then another, they could not get one of them 
to cross the channel. At the end of four hours, they 
were rewarded by getting two over, Juan d'Afias- 
co's and Gonzalo Silvestre's. But even after these 
crossed, none of the others would follow. 

Some of the men, those who could not swim, 
then saddled, bridled, and mounted their horses, to 
be in readiness in case of attack. The others, still 
standing in the water, shivering, shaking, and freez- 
ing, their naked bodies mottled and black as negroes, 
grew desperate and savage. Juan d'Anasco, in his 
clothes, sitting on his horse, all saddled and bridled, 
was watching the proceedings from the other bank. 
Vexed at the delay and the fruitless efforts of the 
men, and not considering that it had not been for lack 



94 Hernando de Soto 

of trying, and not noticing the condition that the 
men were in, he fell into a temper, for he had one of 
his own — one which sometimes cost him the respect 
of others — and riding into the water as far as he 
could, he called out in a loud voice : " Gomez Arias, 
why do you not get those horses over and be done 
with it ? The devil take you all ! " Gomez Arias, 
knowing that he and his companions were more 
dead than alive, and hardly able to stand the agony 
they were enduring, with disgust and contempt in his 
heart for the ingratitude of Anasco, answered as 
angrily and as loudly : " The devil take you your- 
self, sitting there on your horse in your clothes and 
forgetting that we have been here in the water freez- 
ing and doing our best ! Get off your horse and 
come over here, and we shall see whether you can do 
more than we." And to these he added other words 
neither kinder nor more polite, for his anger when 
excited also knew no bounds. Juan d' Anasco re- 
strained himself, for he saw that the companions of 
Arias restrained him. The discord subsiding, the 
Spaniards returned to their work, and as it was now 
near midday and the coldness of the water some- 
what tempered by the sun, the horses began to 
act better. But with all the pushing and pulling 
and haste that the men could put into it, it was 
three o'clock in the afternoon before the last one 
crossed. 

The state of their riders was pitiful — livad, and 
so frozen and spent with fatigue that they shivered 
and shook the rest of the day, and could hardly hold 



The Ride of the Thirty C'dvaliers 95 

themselves upon their saddles. And it must be re- 
membered that they had no other food than corn to 
restore their strength. But they rode along, thank- 
ing God that at least the cold had kept the Indians 
in their cabins, and that to the other trials a savage 
attack had not been added. When night came on 
they slept with their usual precautions, and before 
daylight were on the road again ; the horses of the 
two dead companions going along with the others, 
often taking the lead as if their riders were guiding 
them. 

By dawn the next day, the twelfth of their journey, 
they came to the village of Urribarricuxi. A little 
while after midnight as usual they mounted again, and 
had journeyed about two leagues when they saw a fire 
in the forest, and drawing near, discovered a group of 
warriors and squaws busily cooking fish. The Span- 
iards decided to capture as many of them as they 
could, even if they were Mucozo's people, and hold 
them until it was known whether the chief had kept 
peace with Pedro Calderon. So they charged upon 
the camp. The warriors fled on all sides into the 
forest, leaving the women and children. These 
raised up their voices, and wept and wailed, calling 
upon the name of Ortiz, uttering no word but that, 
and repeating it over and over again, to remind the 
Spaniards of the kindness of their chief and them- 
selves to him. But it was of no avail ; they were 
taken and tied and carried along ; the Spaniards, 
however, paused to eat the fish first, and although 
in the skirmish both Indians and horses had trampled 



g6 Hernando de Soto 

them into the earth, they tasted to them better than 
the best they had ever eaten before. 

They made a circuit around the village of Mu- 
cozo, and had travelled about five leagues, when 
the horse of Juan Lopez Cacho broke down. 
As for Juan Lopez himself, what with the excite- 
ment of getting away from the Indians and his own 
robust youth, he was again himself, and completely 
restored from the effects of his fatigue and exposure, 
and during the rest of the expedition he fared the 
same and did his work the same as the others. 
And now his horse, after all his brave struggle to 
cross the Ocali River, was to give out only three 
leagues from the end of the journey ! His master 
urged and the men coaxed, but it was impossible to 
get him on farther, so they left him in a fine meadow 
where there was plenty of grass, taking off his 
saddle and bridle, which they hung in a tree, so 
that the Indian who captured him would have him 
with all his accoutrements ; but they feared that the 
first Indian that saw him would shoot him to death 
without mercy. 

Their sadness over the good horse lasted until 
the premonitions of a still greater trouble drove 
it away. This came when they were within a little 
more than a league of the village of Hirrihigua. 
They looked in vain upon the ground for hoof- 
prints or any signs of men and horses, and it 
seemed only natural that the ground should have 
been tracked thus far and even farther. Their fears 
suggested that the garrison had been massacred by 



The Ride of the Thirty CavaHers 97 

Hirrihigua, or that it had abandoned the country in 
the caravels. If the men of the garrison were still 
living and in the village, it was impossible, the cava- 
liers kept repeating to one another, that there should 
not be signs of them so near the place. In this 
troubled state of mind, they took counsel as to what 
they should do if their fears proved true. They 
would have no boat to travel in by sea, and to re- 
turn by land to the Adelantado, after what they had 
passed through, seemed utterly impossible. But 
coming out of their forebodings with equal spirit 
and determination, they decided unanimously that, 
if they did not find their companions in the village, 
they would retire into some hidden nook in the 
forest where there was grass for the horses, and 
while resting there from their fatigue, would kill the 
superfluous horses for food ; then they would start 
out again and try to get back to the Adelantado. 
Even if they were killed on the road, they said, they 
would end like good soldiers, trying to do their 
duty in the charge given them by the captain-general ; 
and if they came through in safety, then they would 
have accomplished their duty like good soldiers. 

So they pushed on, thdr suspicions and fears 
growing more certain as they advanced, for still no 
sign or sound of Spaniards or horses could they dis- 
cover. But when they came to the little lake that 
lay about a half league from the village, they saw 
where lye had been made, and clothes recently 
washed. Shouts broke from them, and they laughed 
for joy ; and as for the horses, when they came upon 



98 Hernando de Soto 

the scent of other horses, they pricked up their 
ears and spirits, pranced and reared, and showed so 
much mettle that it was as much as their riders 
could do to hold them in; and this, when they 
were so strained and jaded that they could barely 
stand on their feet. 

When the village of Hirrihigua came in sight, 
the sun was just setting and the night-watch was 
riding out of the gate two by two, lances and 
shields fixed at parade. Juan d'Anasco turned to 
his men and gave a command. They formed their 
column two by two, grasped their lances and shields, 
set their helmets erect, and with a ringing war-cry 
dashed into the village and up to the headquarters 
of Calderon, as if they were entering a tilt or tourna- 
ment, says the chronicle, and not ending the ride 
we have described. 

Calderon, according to his orders, at once sent 
Gomez Arias in the caravel to Havana to carry 
to Doiia Isabella a report of the expedition so far. 
He carried her also a present of slaves. The two 
brigantines were put in order and manned, and 
D'Anasco himself sailed with them to the Bay of 
Apalache. The camp at Hirrihigua was then 
broken up, and the garrison started on the march 
to Apalache. 



CHAPTER IX 

CAPAFI 

N the meantime the Adelantado had not been 
idle. He was, in fact, kept incessantly on the 
alert day and night by the assaults and am- 
bushes of the Indians. His soldiers dared not vent- 
ure outside the camp without meeting death, or at 
the least, wounds. It seemed to him that there was 
but one way to put an end to a mode of warfare in 
which he was hopelessly overmatched by the sav- 
ages ; that was, to get their chief into his power. 
He bestirred himself with the utmost skill and 
secrecy to find out where Capafi, as the chief was 
called, had hidden himself, and by slow degrees ob- 
tained certain information that he might be found 
in the centre of a great forest. Although only 
eight leagues from the camp, Capafi thought him- 
self safe, relying upon the canebrakes, swamps, and 
impassable places that surrounded him, the fortifica- 
tions he had thrown up, and the number of war- 
riors he had summoned to his defence. De Soto 
resolved to make the capture himself Taking his 
spies and guides, he set out with the needful num- 
ber of men, horse and foot, and at the end of three 

99 



lOO Hernando de Soto 

days of toil and difficulty reached that part of the 
forest, an impassable jungle to all appearances, where, 
as he was told, lay Capafi's lair. In the very centre 
of it, the spies said, a space had been cleared for 
the dwellings of the chief and his attendants, and 
the only way to it was a narrow footpath more than 
half a league long, barred the entire length, at inter- 
vals of a hundred paces apart, by high paHsades of 
stout logs. Behind each palisade stood a band of 
picked warriors. There was no other path or open- 
ing to get out of the fort on the other side, for Capafi 
was so confident of the strength of his fortifications, 
and of the bravery of the warriors defending them, 
that, even if the Spaniards succeeded in reaching 
him, it would be impossible for them, he thought, 
to take him. Inside of the last barricades was Capafi 
himself, and the warriors around him were such as 
would die, to the last man, before seeing their chief 
in the power of his enemies. 

At the mouth of the pathway, the Adelantado 
found the savages ready for him. The fight that 
followed was no easy one in the narrow standing- 
room ; it was hand to hand and foot to foot. The 
Spaniards cut away the palisades with their hatchets 
to make their way through, and the Indians pun- 
ished them severely while they were doing it. But 
the palisade was gained, the Indians driven back, 
and the next one attacked. And after this, one 
by one, each barricade was cut through, and the 
Indians driven to their next defence, and the centre 
palisade and Capafi were at last reached. There 



Capafi loi 

was no further retreat, and the fight the Indians 
had made before was but a spark to the fire 
that raged now. An explosion of fierce despair it 
was ; for their chief was looking on, with life and 
liberty at stake. They threw their naked bodies 
upon the bristling ranks, to catch the swords and 
lances in their hands. But the Spaniards were too 
near the prize they were after, or the loss of all 
they had gained, to falter now, and they fought 
with the determination that never fiils to win. 
The Adelantado, like the good captain he was, 
fought in front, calling to his soldiers, each by 
name, to strike with him ; and the soldiers, like the 
good soldiers they were, at every call, leaped for- 
ward. Capafi, seeing that his men were being cut 
down ruthlessly, and that by naked warriors more 
could not be done than they had done, and that 
to the last man they would die before yielding, now 
raised his voice, and in tones that rose above all 
the tumult, commanded them to surrender. They 
would not obey, until with cries to the conquerors 
to put them all to death but to spare the life of their 
chief, they secured his safety. Then they stood 
aside and the chief came forward to give himself up, 
borne in the arms of attendants, for he could not 
walk ; he was too fat. 

The Spaniards gazed in wonder upon him. 
Never in their lives had they seen so fat a man. 
He not only could not walk, he could not even 
hold his body upright on his feet. In public he 
had to be carried everywhere ; in private he crawled 



I02 Hernando de Soto 

about on his hands and knees. And this was the 
reason, as the Spaniards now discovered, why he 
could not fly to a greater distance from them. 

De Soto received him affably, as was his wont 
with chiefs, and, very much pleased to have him in 
his power, returned at once with him to his camp. 
He was confident, now, that the Apalachians would 
prudently modify their warfare, and that the Span- 
iards would be able at least to step out of their camp 
without incurring the penalty of wounds and death. 
But never was a man so mistaken in his calculations. 
The Apalachians, on the contrary, showed themselves 
more audacious than ever, more persistent and more 
diabolically fertile in their resources of ambushes and 
surprises; and the death line was maintained more 
rigidly than ever around the Spanish camp. The 
loss of their chief had made them only freer, by re- 
lieving them from the care of guarding him. They 
could now devote all their energies to the Spaniards 
and fight with both hands, whereas before one had 
been tied. The exasperated Adelantado turned 
upon his prisoner and bitterly upbraided him for the 
ingratitude of his people after the kindness and 
mercy shown their chief; for the Spaniards, he 
said, if they had liked, could have killed him and 
destroyed his village and cornfields. And the 
Adelantado warned Capafi, if he did not wish to 
bring a war of fire and blood on the land, to com- 
mand his people to cease their attacks, bidding 
him remember that he was in the hands of the 
Spaniards, and that, although they had hitherto 



Capafi. 103 

treated him with all honour and respect, they might 
change. 

Capafi, with all the gentleness and patience in the 
world, and most submissively, and with much show 
of feeling, replied that it pained him beyond every- 
thing that his people did not return the kindness 
and mercy of De Soto by becoming friends with 
him and serving him, as he, their chief, had tried 
to induce them to do since he had been a prisoner. 
He had sent messengers to them to command them 
to cease harming and vexing his captors ; but the 
messages had been of no effect, for the Indians be- 
lieved that they came not from the chief, but from 
De Soto. He could not persuade them to believe 
the favour and consideration with which he had 
been treated, nor that he was allowed to go about 
the camp at liberty ; on the contrary, they sus- 
pected that he was being badly used, that he was 
kept in prison and in chains, and for this reason 
they were bolder and more aggressive than before. 
Therefore, he prayed De Soto to send him, Capafi 
himself, as a messenger of peace, to have his sol- 
diers carry him some five or six leagues from the 
camp to a spot in the forest that he would show 
them, where his best and noblest warriors had 
taken refuge. There, shouting in a loud voice, he 
would call them up by name, and they, hearing the 
voice of their chief, would all come at his call, and 
he would take away their evil suspicions of the 
Spaniards, and would calm and soothe them, and 
they would do what he commanded, as De Soto 



I04 Hernando de Soto 

would see. This, he said, was the quickest way 
and the only way to bring them into any sort of 
peace. Nothing would ever be gained by sending 
messengers to them, because the answer would be 
that the messengers were false, sent by their ene- 
mies and not by their chief. And Capafi, reason- 
ing thus, in his low, musical voice, and serious, 
grieved countenance, persuaded De Soto to do as 
he said — to send him to the forest as a messenger 
to his people. 

The orders were given and carried into prompt 
execution. Two companies, one of cavalry and 
one of infantry, were detailed to go with the chief, 
De Soto himself strictly charging them with his 
watch and guard, so that he could not escape. 
They left the camp before daylight, and travelling 
hard, by nightfall reached the spot chosen by 
Capafi. He at once, as he said he would, began to 
shout and call, sending also his Indian attendant 
into the woods. In a short time ten or twelve 
warriors stood before him to receive his commands, 
which he gave in the hearing of the Spaniards. They 
and all the Indians in the forest were forthwith to 
prepare to come together before him the next day, 
for he himself in person wished to tell them things 
most important for them to know. 

Darkness closed in over the forest', the tired 
Spaniards set their sentinels and placed their guard 
over the chief, and betook themselves to sleep, 
well satisfied with themselves for what they had 
accomplished so far, and enjoying the results of 



Capafi 105 

success in anticipation — their triumphal return to 
camp the next day, leading the whole of Capafi's 
tribe behind them, in docile submission. 

But a man's surest hopes seem ever his vainest ones. 
When daylight came and the Spaniards awoke, they 
found themselves without their chief, and without 
a single Indian in the camp. They looked at each 
other blankly and they asked one another what had 
happened. And the only answer they made, the only 
one they could make, was that what had happened 
was impossible unless the chief had conjured up 
demons who had carried him away during the night 
through the air. Not one suggested that, tired 
with their long day's march, and trusting confidently 
in the chief's pleasant words and genial manner, as 
well as the unwieldy bulk of his body, they had 
made themselves easy and all gone to sleep together, 
those on guard as well as those off. The chief hav- 
ing been carried, was of course not tired nor asleep ; 
but astute warrior that he was, awake, alert, and watch- 
ful ; and so he seized his opportunity, and simply 
crawled out on his hands and knees into the arms 
of his lurking warriors, who, hoisting him upon 
their shoulders, made off with him, and this time 
carried him well beyond the reach of his enemies. 

The Spanish captains and their worthy soldiers 
beat the forest wildly for their captive all day long, 
but came upon neither track nor sound of him. 
The hardiest bird of all to catch is, in truth, the one 
just escaped from the snare. The Indians, having 
deposited their chief in a place of safety, returned, 



io6 Hernando de Soto 

and now they did not bother to fight the Spaniards, 
but, laughing at them, mocking them, jeering at 
them, insulting and affronting them in every way 
possible, they let them return to their camp in safety. 
The soldiers arrived at last, ashamed and discom- 
fited enough by the confession that a fat Indian who 
had been given with so many charges into their 
guard should have escaped from them on all fours. 
They composed a thousand fables to relate to the 
captain-general and told them all, vowing that all that 
night they each one of them had felt the most ex- 
traordinary and unnatural things happening to them, 
and that by all the saints the escape would not have 
been possible unless Capafi had flown through the 
air with devils ; for it was contrary to reason to sup- 
pose otherwise in face of the stern watch they had 
kept and the good guard they had posted everywhere. 

The Adelantado saw through the affair perfectly 
well, but in order not to hurt the feelings of the 
chagrined captains he pretended to be convinced by 
their explanations, and even helped them out by 
saying that the Indians were such great wizards and 
necromancers that they could perform even greater 
wonders than that. Nevertheless, he never forgot 
nor ceased to resent in private the carelessness his 
soldiers had shown. Everybody else in camp said 
that it was a divine mercy that the Indians had not 
returned and massacred the last one of them, which 
they could easily have done while the Spaniards were 
sleeping so soundly. 

During the last week of December, Juan d'Anasco, 




•' The caravels had arrived. 



Capafi 107 

with the caravels, arrived in the bay of Apalache. 
Six days later Pedro Calderon and his detachment 
marched into camp, slowly and painfully, for men 
and horses were sore and wounded. That any had 
survived the march was a surprise to the comrades 
who listened to their accounts of it. In every detail, 
the painful experiences of the Adelantado's march 
had been repeated, with the difference only of far 
more overvv'helming numbers of Indians against 
them. Every day, nay, every mile, furnished its 
skirmish ; every night had been a sleepless one ; 
every forest had proved a trap ; every piece of 
shrubbery in the open fields an ambuscade. When 
they at last reached the camp, each man thanked 
God, as if for his resurrection. 

A week later, Diego de Maldonado was ordered to 
take the caravels and coast one hundred leagues west 
from the bay of Apalache, exploring what harbours 
he found. Two months were allowed for the voy- 
age. At the end of the term, Maldonado returned 
bringing two captives and the news of the discovery 
of a most beautiful port, the finest yet seen, called 
by the Indians Achusi (Pensacola Bay), sheltered 
from every wind, but large and deep enough for the 
largest fleet of vessels. 

The success of the conquest seemed now beyond 
doubt and everything seemed to be working in its 
favour ; for the prime necessity for an establishment 
in the country was just such a port as Maldonado 
described, where vessels could enter and land emi- 
grants, horses, cattle, poultry, seeds, implements. 



io8 Hernando de Soto 

and utensils. A few days after Maldonado's arrival, 
therefore, the governor sent him to Havana with 
the two caravels to announce to Doiia Isabella, and 
to all the other dignitaries of the island, the assured 
success of the expedition. Maldonado had orders 
to return with Gomez Arias to Florida the October 
following, which would be in the year 1540, bring- 
ing the three caravels and any other ship or ships 
he could buy, loaded with supplies of ammunition 
and clothing and reinforcements of men and horses. 
At the date named the governor reckoned to be at 
Achusi, after having made a long circuit of dis- 
covery in the interior. 

After this the winter wore on in Apalache with 
no events to chronicle save the daily exploits of the 
Indians. One of the Spaniards years afterwards 
paid this compliment to them : " Perfectly brave and 
dauntless, they showed us well — curse them! — how 
it was they had been able to drive Pamphilo de Nar- 
vaez out of their country. They came up to our 
very beards every day to shake their fists at us ; 
and, always prowling about the woods, whenever we 
went out to cut wood, at the first sound of an axe, 
they would swarm upon us ; kill us, break the 
chains from our slaves, brought along to carry the 
loads ; take our scalps ; and by the time one's cries 
brought help, all would be over. I remember one 
day that seven of us went out from the camp on 
horseback hunting for a mess of game, opossum or 
coon (little dogs, the Spaniards called them), and I 
tell you we held that for a famous day when we 



Capafi 109 

could find one, and no pheasant ever tasted better 
to us. And so, going along, hunting our best, we 
ran across five Indians with their bows and arrows. 
All aimed at us, and one of them, making a mark 
on the ground, told us not to pass over it or they 
would kill us all. We, not understanding fiDoIery 
of that kind, charged upon them ; they let fly their 
arrows, killed two of our horses, wounded two 
others, and one of our men badly. We killed one 
of them, but the others ran away and escaped ; for 
in truth as they were swift on their feet, and having 
no clothes on to disturb them, they generally did 
escape — except in a long run against the horses.". 

One day Juan d'Anasco and six other cavaliers, 
carelessly talking, walked their horses through the 
village and into the fields beyond ; they were with- 
out armour; one carried his lance, the others had 
only their swords in their belts. In the bushes on 
the edge of the clearing, they discovered an Indian 
man and woman gathering peas from vines left over 
from the year before, and at once they dashed for- 
ward to capture them. The woman, at the sight 
of the horses, stood transfixed with terror. The 
man, taking her in his arms, ran into the woods, 
and putting her down under the first tree gave her 
two or three pushes to make her go farther in. He 
could have gone with her and escaped, but on the 
contrary, running back to the spot where he had left 
his bow and arrows, he seized them and advanced 
to meet the Spaniards with as much firmness 
and self-possession as if they were only another 



iio Hernando de Soto 

single Indian like himself. As he came forward, the 
Spaniards declared it was an unworthy act for seven 
Spaniards on horseback to kill one Indian on foot, 
and so gallant a one merited to be taken alive. 
Surrounding him, therefore, before he had time to 
use his bow and arrows, they pressed their horses 
upon him, crowding him to the ground, and calHng 
upon him to surrender. The harder pressed he 
was the more furiously the Indian fought, on the 
ground as he was, shooting his arrows and thrusting 
his bow into the bellies of the horses above him. 
Then, darting from under the hoofs to his feet, he 
dealt, with his bow in both hands, such a blow upon 
the head of the cavalier who was thrusting at him 
with his lance, that the blood gushed from his face, 
and he reeled in the saddle. " Plague take you!" 
cried the Spaniard, furious. " While we are fooling 
to save your life, you will kill the last one of us." 
And he gave the warrior a thrust through the breast 
which stretched him dead. All seven of the horses 
were wounded. 

And again, to give another story : about the 
breaking up of the winter, in the beginning of 
March, a detachment was sent to a neighbouring 
deserted village to bring back corn. After taking 
all they wanted, the soldiers hid themselves in 
ambush to catch any Indians that by chance might 
come along; and very soon an Indian did come 
along through the village square. A cavalier, too 
eager for the honour of his capture to think, gal- 
loped into the open space. The Indian, with in- 



Capafi III 

credible swiftness, ran a short distance ; but seeing 
that the horse was gaining upon him, he threw him- 
self under a low tree, and with an arrow in his bow, 
waited for the horseman to come within shot. The 
cavalier, not being able to get under the branches of 
the tree, galloped alongside, thrusting his lance at 
him. The Indian, dodging the lance, shot his arrow 
just as the horse was abreast; the horse stumbled 
and fell dead. A second cavalier had by this time 
ridden up, and he also, not being able to get under 
the tree, galloped past just as the first had done, 
thrusting his lance under the branches at the 
Indian. The Indian, as before, waited, and then 
sent his arrow as before ; and the second horse 
stumbled and fell alongside the first. Leaping 
from their saddles the two cavaliers ran forward on 
foot to attack him. But the Indian, satisfied with 
unhorsing his pursuers and putting them on foot 
like himself, now easily and lightly skipped before 
them to the forest, turning to grimace and make 
mocking gestures at them, jeering, "Let us always 
fight on foot, and then we shall see who are the 
better men ! " 

A few days later two soldiers rode outside the 
camp to gather fruit in the woods near by, and un- 
able to reach the lowest branches from their horses, 
climbed from the saddles into the tree. The 
Indians, always on the watch, waited only to let 
them get well into the trees, then darted out towards 
them. One of the men dropped to the ground to 
run to his horse, but an arrow, driving between his 



112 Hernando de Soto 

shoulders and coming half-way out of his breast, 
stretched him flat. The other man was shot in the 
tree, and falling with three arrows in him, had not 
reached the ground before he was scalped. The 
frightened horses ran to the camp. One had a drop 
of blood on his flank and was taken to the farrier. 
As the wound was no larger than a lancet's point, 
the farrier said he could see nothing to dress. The 
horse,dying the next day, was opened and an arrow 
was found to have gone nearly through the whole 
length of his body, lacking only the breadth of two 
fingers of coming out. The stories of wonderful 
arrow shots are innumerable in the chronicle. The 
fine horse of Gonzalo Silvestre, later shot by an 
arrow, fell dead without quivering a muscle. Aston- 
ished that so strong and large an animal should die 
so quickly from one shot, the Spaniards opened his 
body. They found that the arrow, entering the 
breast, had cut straight through the trunk, piercing 
the heart in its way. Luis de Moscoso, in an en- 
gagement, was shot by an arrow that passed through 
a doublet of leather and the coat of mail he wore 
underneath, a coat that cost in Spain one hundred 
and fifty ducats. The rich cavaliers, who wore simi- 
lar fine and costly coats of mail, determined to find 
out what they were really worth as defence against 
arrows. So in the open square they set up a pole, 
upon which they fastened one of the stout osier 
baskets plaited by the Indians, and over the basket 
they drew one of their best coats of mail. Then 
loosing an Apalachian warrior from his chains, they 



Capafi 113 

gave him a bow and arrows and, placing him about 
fifty paces away, told him to shoot at the basket. 
The Indian aimed and shot; the arrow passed so 
clean, clear, and strong through the coat of mail 
and basket that, if there had been a man on the 
other side, it would have gone through him too. 
The Spaniards then put another coat of mail on top 
of the one already on the basket. The Indian shot 
again ; the arrow passed through the four thicknesses 
but lodged in the last ; when he saw that his arrow 
had not gone clear through, he angrily begged for 
another shot. " Let me try once more," he said, 
" and if my arrow does not go as clear through as 
the first, hang me at once." But the Spaniards had 
enough evidence, and did not care to see their coats 
of mail still further discredited. But henceforth 
they called them derisively their court dress and 
gala costumes, and replaced them by very ugly but 
much more serviceable v/added vests, and skirts 
wide enough to cover the breast and haunches of 
the horses. 

The dexterity of the Indians was not to be won- 
dered at considering their training, say the Span- 
iards who suffered by it, for babies of three years 
or less, as soon as they could stand on their feet, were 
given tiny bows and arrows, with which they went 
out hunting against the beetles and insects crawling 
round their cabins ; and when they found a mouse 
or a lizard in a hole, they would stand on the 
watch from three to six hours, waiting for it to 
come out, so as to shoot it. If there was nothing 



114 Hernando de Soto 

else to shoot, they shot at the flies on the floor and 
walls of their cabins. The bows of the warriors, 
made of oak or other strong, heavy wood, were of 
the height, and in proportion to the strength, of the 
men that used them ; and as the Indians of Florida 
were generally six feet high, no Spaniard in the 
army, straining to his utmost, could draw the string 
to the face; while the Indians, with the greatest 
ease, drew it behind the ear. 



CHAPTER X 

COFA AND COFAQUI 

SEEKING indefatigably among his captives for 
information about the country farther inland, 
which he was about to explore, De Soto dis- 
covered a lad about sixteen or seventeen years of age, 
who, reared by Indian traders, had often travelled 
with them to great distances. He offered to act as 
guide through the country he had gone over, a dis- 
tance of at least twelve or thirteen days' march. A 
few days later another boy, also a trader's, was capt- 
ured, who had penetrated still farther into the in- 
terior, and knew even more about the country than 
the first boy. When questioned about gold and silver 
and precious stones, specimens of which were shown 
him, he said that in one country he had travelled 
through, called Cofachiqui, there was to be found 
much of the yellow and white metal, and great 
quantities of pearls, selecting one from the jewelry 
before him to show what he meant, and he told how 
the gold and silver were taken from the mine and 
melted, just as if he had seen it done, or, as the 
Spaniards said, as if the devil had inspired him. 
This spread wild delight among the conquerors, who 

"5 



ii6 Hernando de Soto 

could dream and think and talk of nothing else than 
Cofachiqui and their longing to be there, each man 
at once seeing himself the lord and master of great 
and noble treasures, and acting and arranging his fut- 
ure thereby. As soon as the spring was well begun, 
about the end of March, the Adelantado gave the 
word of command, and the army gladly shaking the 
dust of Apalache from their feet, started towards 
the joyfully expected El Dorado. 

After three days they came to an uninhabited 
neutral region, and crossing it entered a new prov- 
ince, Altapaha. Here was found a different coun- 
try and a different people — kindly, peace-loving, and 
domestic tribes living in comfortable villages sur- 
rounded by cornfields. At every village the army 
was received with presents of game and fruit, and 
entertained with generous hospitality ; a peaceful 
Sabbath period it seemed to the Spaniards after 
Apalache. The villages were better built than any 
seen before in Florida ; the cabins were thatched 
with cane instead of straw and palmetto, and the 
walls daubed with clay ; fireplaces were provided, 
and in front of the cabins there were porticos with 
benches or seats of cane. The people wore mantles 
of skin or of stuff woven by the women from dried 
grass or bark of trees, or fibre of nettles, which was 
beaten out and bleached like flax ; and the skins 
were so skilfully dressed and dyed that they looked 
like the finest broadcloth. De Soto, perhaps as a 
votive offering for the peace and friendship found 
in the province, set up a cross in the village of 



Cofa and Cofaqui 117 

Altapaha, explaining to the people in whose memory 
it was done. 

The army moved on towards the sunrise, the 
quarter where the Indian lad said Cofachiqui lay. 
The different chronicles of the expedition diverge 
here somewhat, being confused about the route, 
giving the village names in different orders. In giv- 
ing their accounts of the expedition afterwards, the 
Spaniards were wont to say that they never ex- 
pected to know where they marched in Florida until 
they had finished serving God here below and had 
gone to their eternal home, when the exact line of 
their march, with the other unknown things of earth, 
would be revealed to them. They were looking for 
gold and not topographical knowledge ; no maps 
were made, no bearings taken, and individual mem- 
ory is the only authority for the succession of names 
that vaguely track them for us to-day through the 
plantations, towns, and railway centres that occupy 
the territory and forests of four centuries ago. Cofa 
was the chief of the next village where a halt was 
made. As he had left the Christian symbol in 
Altapaha, De Soto now left the symbol o{ Christians 
in Cofa. This was the one small cannon which, with 
infinite trouble and vexation, the army had dragged 
along with them so far. But first, to show the 
chief what he was leaving with him, he ordered the 
cannon to be drawn in front of the chief's house, 
loaded, aimed, and fired at a large, beautiful oak 
standing outside the village. In two shots the tree 
was demolished, the chief and his warriors standing 



ii8 Hernando de Soto 

by speechless and motionless from awe and admira- 
tion, and pride that so wonderful a thing was con- 
fided to them. When the army left his village, 
Cofa provided it with pack bearers and guides and 
interpreters, and he, with a great following of war- 
riors, accompanied it a day's march towards the next 
territory, which belonged to his brother Cofaqui, 
whom he had also warned by a forerunner of the 
coming of the Spaniards, bespeaking hospitality for 
them. 

Cofaqui, acting upon the recommendation, pre- 
pared to receive the strangers in a manner that 
would impress them with his importance and great- 
ness. Before they entered his territory, he sent a 
band of his most noble warriors, escorted by a large 
body of followers, to bid them welcome ; and as they 
crossed his boundary, the pack bearers and guides 
of Cofa were dismissed to return to their homes, and 
their places were taken by tribesmen of Cofaqui. 
When the sentinels in the watch-tower of the village 
gave the cry that the Spanish army was approaching, 
the young chief and his body-guard sallied forth to 
meet them. A beautiful sight they presented to the 
colour-loving eyes of the Spaniards, and if the lan- 
guage of their description seems exaggerated, it is 
doubtless the fault of their eyes, always unreliable 
about what they loved to look upon. All hand- 
some and all young they were, or looked to be, — 
the attribute of the warriors of Florida that may 
have given rise to the myth of the Fountain of 
Bimini. Their heads were crowned by the tallest 



Cofa and Cofaqui 119 

and handsomest of war bonnets ; over their shoulders 
hung mantles of dyed skuis, lustrous and bright as 
satin and velvet ; quivers decked with bright and 
dancing tassels rose at their backs. 

The ceremonies of greeting and speech over, the 
Adelantado and Cofaqui, the Spanish officers and 
Indian warriors, all entered the village together, with 
great show of good-will and cordiality, interchanging 
their signs and gestures, and passing polite messages 
to one another through their interpreters. The 
dwelling of the chief was placed at the disposi- 
tion of De Soto, and the village abandoned to the 
army ; and the rest of the day was given up to feast- 
ing and joUity, Cofaqui retiring in the evening 
with his people to a neighbouring village. The 
next morning early he was again with the Adelan- 
tado, and after answering at length and freely the 
questions about his province and the country, he 
put this question : " I should like to know your 
will, whether it is to remain here, or to move on 
farther ; for according to it must we prepare what 
is needful for you." The Adelantado answered 
that he was going in search of other provinces, 
which he had been told lay farther ahead of him, 
one of them being called Cofachiqui, and that he 
would not stop anywhere until he had seen the 
whole country. The land of Cofachiqui, the chief 
said, was next to his, but as there lay betwixt them 
a vast neutral region that would require seven days 
to cross, he offered to send people to escort the 
army and to carry the luggage and the provisions. 



I20 Hernando de Soto 

which he would furnish. He at once set about 
giving his orders to collect with all speed the neces- 
sary supplies, and the Indians to carry them. And 
so great was the obedience of his people, or his de- 
sire to get rid of the Spaniards, at the expense of his 
neighbours, who were also his enemies, that four days 
later he had in readiness Indians, thousands in num- 
ber, to serve as pack bearers, and a fine band of 
warriors for guides and escorts. Patofa, the war- 
rior chief, who led all of Cofaqui's war parties, was 
put in command. The Spaniards, at sight of such 
a force, although collected to serve them, grew sus- 
picious and watchful, and kept rigid guard. 

On the last night before their march, when all 
was ready for an early start in the morning, there 
came the secretly expected alarm ringing through 
the air, the loudest and wildest " Help ! Help ! 
They are killing me. Treason ! Treason ! " With 
a " To arms," the soldiers rushed out with their 
weapons, and formed in their companies, infantry 
and cavalry. They waited; no enemy came — no 
further sound. A detail was sent in search of the 
cause of alarm. It was found to be one of the two 
Indian boys captured in Apalache — Pedro the 
Spaniards had dubbed him. The other boy, whose 
name had also been Christianized into Marco, had 
guided the army over all the country that he knew. 
Pedro was now to take his turn and guide the way 
into the province of Cofachiqui, where he had said 
such great treasures of gold and silver and precious 
stones were to be gained. The soldiers found him 



Cofa and Cofaqui I2i 

in his cabin, crying, shivering, and trembling from 
fright. The devil, with a most terrible face, he ex- 
plained, and a great band of other devils, had come 
and told him that he must not guide the Spaniards 
where he had promised, under pain of death ; they 
had seized him, dragged him out of his bed and 
over the floor, beating him so that his body was 
too bruised and sore for him to move. He thought 
that they would have finished by killing him if the 
Spaniards had not come ; but when the great devil 
saw them coming in the door of the cabin, he had 
loosed his hold and fled at once with all his little 
devils. From this Pedro understood that the devil 
was afraid of Christians, and so he begged and 
clamoured to them to baptize him at once, then 
and there, before the devils came back to kill him ; 
for he was sure, if he were a Christian, they would 
not touch him, because he had seen them flee from 
the Christians. 

The Adelantado and other officers were sum- 
moned, and Pedro repeated his story to them, and 
showing the marks and bumps and bruises all over his 
face and body in proof of the blows received. The 
Adelantado ordered the priests to be called. They 
came and listened to Pedro, and after hearing the 
story, baptized him at once and stayed with him all 
night, reciting prayers and giving him restoratives, 
and the next day they confirmed him. The march 
was put ofi^a day, and when the army started, Pedro 
was given a horse to ride, for he said he could neither 
stand nor walk. 



122 Hernando de Soto 

The two armies marched well separated from one 
another, and at night camped apart, the pack bearers, 
as soon as they had delivered their loads to the 
Spaniards, filing off to sleep with their own people, 
and Indians and Spaniards alike posting sentinels, 
as if in fear of declared enemies. The Spaniards 
were suspicious ; but the Indians, free and easy, 
anxious only to please and serve the Spaniards in 
every way possible, adopted their military precau- 
tions only through imitativeness. The uninhabited 
neutral territory, the Despoblado, as the Spaniards 
called it, was a pleasant enough country for marching. 
The woods were open, the hills light, and the streams 
small and easy to cross, with the exception of two, 
whose current was so furious that the horses were 
ranged side bv side to break the force of it, so that 
the foot-soldiers could pass through. 

All went well until the seventh day, about noon, 
when the two armies were thrown into great con- 
fusion and perplexity. The road hitherto followed, 
a broad, smooth highway, came suddenly to an end, 
and although there were several footpaths leading 
from it, each one of them after a few paces lost 
itself in the forest. The Indians in Patofa's army 
as well as in De Soto's confessed that they were all 
astray, and there was not one among them who 
knew where he was, nor in what direction to go 
to get out of the forest. The Adelantado sum- 
moned Patofa, and confident now in his suspicions, 
accused him of leading the Spanish army astray. 
But Patofa indignantly swore that neither he nor 



Cofa and Cofaqui 123 

any Indian in his command had ever before reached 
the spot they were now in, for, in all the warfare 
between the two provinces, Cofachiqui had always 
proved so superior in numbers and strength that 
the people of Cofaqui had not dared to venture 
beyond the boundaries of their own province ; this 
alone was the reason, he said, why they did not 
know where they were, or how to go on. And 
moreover, he added, if the Spanish general suspected 
him of leading the Spanish army there out of malice 
or treason, he would tell him that he and his chief 
were truthful men and above such perfidy. De Soto 
then called Pedro, who up to this time had been 
so certain of his route that he could tell always the 
night before what the next day's stage would be. 
But like the rest of the Indians, Pedro seemed to 
have lost his memory, and he now declared that 
it was four or five years since he had been over 
that road, and he had forgotten it so completely that 
he did not know the way any farther, nor would he 
even suggest in what direction Cofachiqui lay. See- 
ing him deprived so suddenly of his knowledge, the 
soldiers suggested that the devil had been after him 
again ; but devil or no devil, De Soto in his anger 
threatened to throw him to the dogs, and he would 
have done so if Juan Ortiz, who needed him as an 
interpreter, had not begged him off. The rest of 
the day was spent pushing along wherever the forest 
was thin enough to pass through, until about sunset 
they were stopped by a river, wider than any seen 
yet, and too deep to ford. 



124 Hernando de Soto 

And now the an'xiety and perplexity grew yet 
greater, for there were not provisions enough in the 
army to last if it delayed to make rafts and canoes. 
Cofaqui's supplies had been measured only for 
seven days, and although thousands of Indians had 
been ostentatiously sent along to carry them, their 
loads were not half the weight of an ordinary one, as 
the Spaniards now found out, for each pack bearer 
besides his load carried his bow and quiver. Al- 
though the day before proclamation had been made 
that food was to be saved and measured, as it was 
feared that the army would not reach the end of 
its march as early as expected, the notice came too 
late ; there were no provisions left to be saved. So 
here were nearly one thousand Spaniards and three 
hundred and fifty horses to feed, and nothing to eat 
in sight but roots and herbs. The horsemen were 
sent out to hunt at random in all directions for a 
road. At nightfall they returned, faint and weary, 
leading their exhausted horses, with no road or sign 
of habitation found. By the next dawn De Soto 
had started out four detachments, two of horse and 
two of foot, to follow the course of the river up 
and down until they found some inhabited coun- 
try. The camp awaited their return in the pangs 
of starvation. Their great hunger, the soldiers 
afterwards called this experience. The daily meas- 
ure of corn could be counted by the grain. The 
soldiers spent these days searching for edible roots 
and herbs. The Indians hunted and fished inde- 
fatigably ; but a few birds and minnows was all they 



Cofa and Cofaqui 125 

brought back after a day's effort; and akhough 
starving themselves, they would force these upon 
the Spaniards, who, however, says the chronicle, 
always returned half At last the Adelantado saw 
that he must kill the swine. The hogs brought 
from Cuba had multiplied into a herd, which had 
been carefully guarded, and brought along with the 
army, in view of just such a crisis. But killing as 
many as they dared, — for breeders had to be re- 
served, — the rations of meat were so small that they 
seemed rather to aggravate than still the soldiers' 
hunger. And so, as the soldiers said, cheerfulness 
and courage were after all their best substitute for 
food. Officers and men fared alike; for the Ade- 
lantado would never, and even in this dire strait, 
fare better than his soldiers. 

Juan d'Anasco commanded one of the four de- 
tachments, and with him went Patofa with a band 
of warriors. They went up the river. After trav- 
elling three days they came to a village. Very few 
people, but great quantities of food, were found in it. 
The gladness of the fimished men may be imagined, 
and when they had killed their hunger, as they ex- 
pressed it, they mounted to a housetop ; as far as the 
eye could reach they saw along the banks of the 
river, villages, with cornfields lying all around. 
Four troopers at once started back to carry the good 
news to the Adelantado, — and that night, while 
the Spaniards were sleeping, Patofa and his men 
sated their thirst for the blood of their enemies. 
Slipping away from their allies they fell upon the 



126 Hernando de Soto 

unsuspecting village of Cofachiqui, and for once, if 
not forever, settled scores with their foes. The 
Spaniards understood now the true significance of 
Cofaqui's generous escort of warriors, and train of 
pack bearers. 

The news of food in the hungry camp roused it 
from death to life. The soldiers did not wait for 
orders, but each one sped for himself, guided by 
Juan d'Anasco's blazing on the trees. The Ade- 
lantado and those who had the best horses reached 
the village in twelve hours, the rest as their horses 
or legs brought them. The Adelantado put an im- 
mediate end to Patofa's bloody work by sending 
him and his people back to Cofaqui, but with mvich 
largess of presents and thanks. And none too soon ; 
for when the army, resuming its march, advanced 
up the river through the line of villages, no live 
Indians were found, only dead ones; men, women, 
and children, and all scalped. 



CHAPTER XI 

COFACHIQUI 

AT last the Spaniards were in the land of Co- 
fachiqui ! While the army camped for the 
night, the enterprising Juan d'Aiiasco with 
a small party went out on a private reconnoissance. 
They were back again before day, reporting the dis- 
covery of a large village on the other side of the 
river, about two leagues distant.^ The Adelantado 
at once started for it himself with an escort, and, 
following the bank of the river, soon reached the 
canoe-landing opposite the village. Juan Ortiz and 
Pedro called loudly for some one to bear a mes- 
sage to the chief. Indians came out, but seeing 
the strange wonder of Spaniards and horses on the 
other bank, they turned and ran with all speed back 
into the village. Soon six warriors came to the 
bank ; men of fine presence and, as the Spaniards 
judged, of authority. They entered a canoe with 
a number of rowers, and quickly crossed the river 
and landed. Advancing towards the strangers, all 
six of them at the same time made three profound 

1 Indian traditions locate Cofachiqui at the modern Silver Bluff on the east bank 
of the Savannah, in Barnwell County, South Carolina. 

127 



128 Hernando de Soto 

bows, the first towards the east, to the sun, the sec- 
ond towards the west, to the moon, and the third 
to the Adelantado. The Adelantado was seated in 
state on a throne, or rather in a large arm-chair, 
which he carried along with him wherever he went, 
and always sat in to receive chiefs and deputations. 
"Sir," said the warrior spokesman, "do you wish 
peace or war ? " " Peace," answered the Adelan- 
tado, as usual, " not war " ; adding that he only 
asked passage through the territory, and provisions, 
in order to reach other provinces that he was in 
quest of; he desired rafts and canoes also to cross 
the army over the river, and lastly, friendly treat- 
ment while he was marching through the country, 
so that he might cause it the least damage possible. 
Peace, the Indians said, they could promise ; as 
for food, they had themselves but little, because 
during the past year a pestilence had raged through- 
out the province, and it had driven the people from 
their villages into the woods, so that they had not 
planted their fields ; and although the pestilence 
was now over, very few of the Indians had returned 
to their homes. The village opposite alone had 
been free of it. They v/ent on to explain that their 
village was named Cofachiqui, and that their chief 
was a woman, a young girl, but recently raised to 
the position ; they would return and bear to her the 
demands of the strangers, who in the meantime 
must await her answer ; with good confidence, 
hov/cver, for although their chieftain was a girl 
she had the judgment and spirit of a man, and as 



Cofachiqui 129 

such would do for the Spaniards all that she pos- 
sibly could. With this the six warriors returned to 
their boats and crossing the river, disappeared in the 
village. Only a few moments later the Spaniards 
saw two large canoes hastily being made ready, mats 
and cushions laid in them, and a canopy raised 
over one of them. Then a litter approached the 
bank, borne upon the shoulders of four warriors ; a 
young squaw, evidently the princess, descended from 
it and seated herself in the canoe that had the awn- 
ing. Eight Indian women followed, taking the pad- 
dles ; the men went in the other canoe. The women 
rowed the princess across the river, and when she 
stepped out of the canoe, they followed, walking up 
the bank after her. 

Those among the cavaliers who knew classical 
history could not help reminding one another, 
although this scene was rustic and simple in com- 
parison, of Cleopatra going down the river Cydnus 
to meet Mark Antony. The princess, making a low 
reverence before the Spanish general, seated herself 
upon her throne, a kind of bench that her attend- 
ants brought and placed for her at his side, and 
without waiting for him, she began to speak. She 
repeated what her warriors had said ; that the pesti- 
lence of the past year made it impossible for her to 
furnish the amount of provisions she would wish, 
but that she would do all that was in her power. 
And, that De Soto might see her will in her deed, 
she gave him at once one of her two storehouses of 
corn, collected in the village for the relief of her 



ijo Hernando de Soto 

people who had escaped from the pestilence ; the 
other one she prayed De Soto kindly to spare for 
her own necessities, which were great. In a village 
near by there was another store of corn from which, 
she said, he could take as he needed. For his lodge- 
ment, she would give up her own dwelling, and she 
would order half the village to be vacated for a part 
of his army ; but the rest of his soldiers would 
have to content themselves with shelters of green 
branches, which she would have put up for them. 
If it would please him more, she and her people 
would abandon the entire village, and retire to a 
neighbouring one. Canoes and rafts would be 
ready on the following day. 

The Adelantado replied most graciously and gal- 
lantly, accepting her services in the name of the 
emperor and king of Spain, his master, who would 
repay them, he said, when time and occasion offered ; 
as for himself and his army, he promised that her 
great hospitality and kindness should never be 
forgotten. Conversing further about her province 
and other parts of the country, the young girl re- 
plied to all the questions put by the Adelantado 
with such ease, well-ordered ideas, and sound judg- 
ment as the Spaniards could hardly believe pos- 
sible for one reared so far from schools and courts. 
But they had noticed that the Indians of the prov- 
inces they were now travelling through were more 
delicate and refined in appearance, more affable and 
less fierce, than all the others met in the discovery. 
While talking, the princess had quietly and slowly 



Cofachiqui 



m 



unwound a long string of pearls as large as hazel- 
nuts that coiled three times round her neck and fell 
to her waist, fingering and playing with them while 
the interview lasted. When it was over, she 
handed them to Juan Ortiz and told him to give 
them to the governor. They would be valued 
more, Juan said, should she give them with her 
own hands. She replied that she dared not do that 
for fear of going against the modesty which all 
women should hold fast. Asking what the young 
girl was saying and being told, the Adelantado said : 
" More than the pearls themselves would I value 
the favour of receiving them from her hands ; and 
in acting so she would not go against modesty, for 
we are treating of peace and friendship, of all things 
the most important, most serious between strange 
peoples." 

The princess, after hearing this, rose and gave the 
pearls with her own hands to the Adelantado. He 
also rose to receive them, and taking from his finger 
a golden ring set with a handsome ruby that he 
always wore, he gave it to the princess. She re- 
ceived it with great dignity and placed it on one 
of her fingers. This little ceremony over, she took 
her leave and returned to her village, leaving the 
Spanish cavaliers charmed and half in love with 
her, not only on account of her mind, but of her 
beauty, which they vowed then and ever afterwards 
she possessed to the extreme of perfection. And 
so also then and afterwards they called her by no 
other name or title than La Sefiora, the Lady of Co- 



132 Hernando de Soto 

fachiqui ; and the name was right, says the chron- 
icler, for a lady she was in all respects. The mas- 
ter of camp arrived with the rest of the army, and 
it was put across the river next day by means of the 
rafts and canoes provided by the Indians. 

Learning that the widowed mother of the prin- 
cess lived in retirement about fifty miles away, 
the Adelantado wishing, as he said, to make sure 
of peace and tranquillity as long as he was in the 
country, determined to get her into his power. He 
therefore requested the princess to send a message 
to her mother to pay a visit to her. The princess 
did so, urging her mother to come and see a people 
never seen before in those parts, who went about 
on the strangest kind of animals. The widow not 
only refused to come, but when she had heard how 
kindly her daughter had received the strangers, she 
fell into a temper and soundly rated the warrior who 
brought the message for having consented to so easy 
and quick a friendship with a people, the like of 
whom, as they said, they had never seen before. 
She added many other pruderies, the Spaniards said, 
such as irate widows and mothers the world over 
are wont to scold about. All of this being duly 
reported to the Adelantado made him more de- 
termined to get hold of her. He sent for Juan 
d'Aiiasco, and ordered him as one, he said, who had 
a lucky hand in such affairs, to take thirty soldiers, 
and disregarding the privacy and seclusion of the 
lady widow to bring her with all the friendliness and 
kindness in the world by force with him to the camp. 



Cofachiqui 133 

Juan d'Aiiasco, although the day was already ad- 
vanced, set out at once on a mission that came 
ready made to his taste. The princess herself with 
her own hands presented the guide to him ; a young 
warrior, who, she explicitly directed, when the party 
neared the dwelling-place of the old princess, was to 
go in advance and warn her of the Spaniards' com- 
ing, and supplicate her to go peaceably and as a 
friend with them ; and he was to be sure to say that 
her daughter and all her people made the same peti- 
tion to her. The young warrior had been reared 
in the very arms of the old princess, and she loved 
him as her own son; and the daughter chose him 
on this account, hoping that love for the messenger 
would mitigate the pain inflicted by his message. 
The young warrior matched his princess-chief in 
looks and bearing. He was about twenty-one, 
and nothing less than beautiful in face and fig- 
ure ; and as the Spaniards expressed it, the nobil- 
ity of his air stood to the nobility of his blood, 
as does the flower to the fruit. And gallant enough 
he was in dress for such an embassy, with his dia- 
dem of the rarest feathers, mantle of finest deer- 
skin, magnificent bow, and elegant quiver of arrows. 

Chatting gayly as he went along, he entertained 
the Spaniards with all manner of happy pleasantries. 
About midday the party stopped to eat and to rest 
awhile under the shade of a grove of trees, for it 
was very warm. Sitting apart the guide seemed to 
give himself up to thought, resting his head on his 
hand and every now and then breathing a long 



134 Hernando de Soto 

sigh. He took off his quiver, put it on the ground 
before him, and began slowly, one by one, to draw 
the arrows from it, passing them on to the Spaniards 
who came round to look at them. In polish and 
workmanship they were, indeed, exquisite. Some 
had heads of stag-horn, sharpened and polished like 
diamonds ; some of fish bones, wonderfully and cun- 
ningly adapted. Others were tipped with palm and 
various other hard woods, pointed like steel or 
iron. The Spaniards broke into exclamations of sur- 
prise and pleasure over them, for each one had some 
particular beauty and novelty of its own. At last 
the young warrior drew out a flint head, long and flat, 
pointed and edged like the blade of a dagger ; with 
a quick motion he plunged this into his throat and 
fell. Before the Spaniards could rush to him, he 
was dead. Astounded and shocked, they ques- 
tioned the Indian attendants. Their answers pieced 
out the explanation, that the young warrior knew 
that his mission was that of an enemy against 
the old princess, because when other messengers 
had been sent to her she had refused to go and 
see the Spaniards, and for him now to guide 
those same Spaniards to where she was, that they 
by fair means or foul might take her away with 
them, was not according to the love she had always 
shown him, nor the care with which as mother and 
princess she had reared him. And at the same 
time it was clear to him that if he did not do what 
the young princess commanded him, he would fall 
into disgrace with her and be dismissed from her 



Cofachiqui 135 

service. Either of these two misfortunes seemed 
more painful than death ; and as whatever he did 
for one would be against the other, and as he could 
not live to please both, he determined to die for both. 

The Indian attendants were then pressed to act 
as guides, but they all swore, whether truly or 
falsely, that they did not know where the old prin- 
cess lived ; that the young warrior alone knew the 
secret of her hiding-place. The Spaniards strove 
for two days to push along without a guide, but the 
difficulties under foot, and the excessive heat, with 
the weight of their armour, wearied and disgusted 
them, and they returned empty handed to the camp. 
Three days later Juan d'Aiiasco made another at- 
tempt, this time by water, and came almost within 
reach of his prize, but the old lady, warned that the 
Christians were after her, fled farther away and hid 
herself where she could not be tracked. It was the 
gossip of the camp that Anasco's persistence and 
energy were not directed so much after the widow 
as after a great treasure of pearls that rumour whis- 
pered she had with her. 

Meanwhile the Adelantado had been in pursuit 
of surer treasures at hand — those that were to 
make the conquerors lords and wealthy for life, 
visions of which had kept them awake at night 
in restless anxiety. He began by summoning the 
princess before him and his officers, and confronting 
her with Pedro and Marco, who were ordered to 
tell her that she was commanded to bring all the 
yellow and white metals and pearls she possessed, 



136 Hernando de Soto 

like the finger rings and pieces of silver, and pearls 
and stones set in the rings, that the Spaniards 
showed her. The princess without hesitation spoke 
to her attendants, and they at once ran in all haste 
and came back fetching a great quantity of shining 
gold-coloured copper, so much brighter than the 
brightest brass that the Indian boys might well have 
been deceived into thinking it gold. For silver, 
were brought forward great white slabs as thick as 
planks, shining like silver, but having no weight 
whatever and crumbling between the fingers like dry 
earth. As for precious stones, the princess said 
there were none in her land, but there were pearls ; 
and if the Spaniards wished, they might go up 
there, pointing with her finger to a temple that 
stood upon a mound. " That," said she, " is the 
burial-place of the warriors of this village ; there 
you will find our pearls. Take what you wish ; 
and if you wish more, not far from here there is a 
village which was the home of my forefathers ; its 
temple is a far larger one than this ; you will find 
there so many pearls that even if you loaded all 
your horses with them, and yourselves with as much 
as you could carry, you would not come to the end 
of them. Take all, and if you still want more, we 
can get more, and even more still for you from the 
fishing-places of my people." This great news and 
the magnificent way in which it was told, raised the 
spirits of the Spaniards considerably, and consoled 
them somewhat for their bitter and keen disappoint- 
ment about the gold and silver. 



Cofachiqui 137 

While waiting for Juan d'Anasco, the royal treas- 
urer, to return, the Adelantado set a trusty guard 
about the temple, and at night himself went the 
rounds for fear that the secret of the wealth inside 
might come to the soldiers and excite their cupidity 
into some lawless attempt ; and as soon as D' Aiiasco 
made his report, he took him and all the royal fiscal 
officers, and thirty cavaliers to the temple, opened 
the door and entered it. The usual burial-room of 
Indian temples was presented to them. Around 
the four sides on benches were ranged the burial- 
chests of the tribe — chests of wood or great baskets 
of finely plaited osier. The Spaniards lifted the 
covers ; all were filled to the top with pearls,^ large 
and small, fine and coarse, pure and discoloured, 
quantities upon quantities of them. And here and 
there over the floor lay heaps of the finest skins, 
dressed with the fur on, and dyed, hardly less valuable 
in European markets than the pearls. It seemed to 
the Adelantado and his companions that there were 
no less than thousands of bushels of pearls in the 
temple, and while the Adelantado was looking 
around, the officers of the treasury began quickly to 

1 C. C. Jones, in " Antiquities of the Southern Indians," after careful examina- 
tion of the subject, states that sufficient historical evidence has been adduced to sat- 
isfy the mind of any candid observer, beyond reasonable doubt, that the quantity and 
value of the pearls possessed by the Indians of the sixteenth century have not been 
exaggerated by the Spanish chroniclers. The numerous shell heaps upon the Gulf 
coast and the banks of the inland rivers and lakes furnish indications of the local 
sources whence the pearls were procured. Examinations of the Unionidae found at 
the present day, in the Southern streams and lakes, have revealed in them seed pearls 
in great quantities. It is not unlikely that rarer gems may have been procured by 
trade from the Gulf islands, and Pearl Islands of Central America, even from the 
Pacific Ocean. 



138 Hernando de Soto 

weigh them, in their scales, which they had brought 
along. When he saw what they were doing, he told 
them that the army could not be hampered and bur- 
dened by heavy loads of pearls ; that his intention 
was to take only two arrobas of them (fifty pounds), 
to show their quality and purity ; as for the quan- 
tity, he said that would have to be described in 
writing. The treasury officers implored him to let 
them take what had been weighed, which they said 
could not be missed from what was left. He con- 
sented to that, and dipping into the pearls, he gave 
his two joined hands full to each cavalier to make 
rosaries of, he said, to say prayers for their sins on. 
So they left the temple elated, but also ardent to 
see the other one, which the princess said was larger 
and richer than this. 

Two days later the same officers and cavaliers, 
with a company of picked soldiers, set out to visit 
it. The distance was about a league, through what 
seemed to be a garden, so green was the country 
with shrubbery and fruit trees, growing in regular 
order, as if they had been planted by hand. The 
party rode pleasantly chatting through them, pick- 
ing the fruit and admiring the fertility of the soil, in 
happy content — the golden dawn, as it were, of the 
realization of their dreams brightening before them. 

They found the village of Talomeco, as it was 
called, situated upon the high bank of the river. 
It held about five hundred cabins, all strong and 
well built; and from its superiority of size and 
appearance over other villages, it looked as if it 



Cofachiqui 139 

might really once have been the seat and residence 
of a powerful chief. His house on its mound rose 
dominantly — but it was in turn dominated by the 
temple. The Spaniards' eyes, in fact, could see 
nothing but the temple — more than one hundred 
paces long, and half as wide, with a tall, pointed roof, 
that glittered before them like a thing of magic. 
Canes, slender and supple, woven into a fine mat, 
served for thatching, and this was studded with row 
upon row of all kinds and sizes of shells, with the 
lustrous side out ; great sea-shells of curious shapes, 
conchs and periwinkles ; and between these shells 
dropped strands of pearls falling all the way from 
cone to edge — a marvel of playing light and colour, 
like the drippings of a summer shower with the sun 
shining through. 

Throwing open the two large doors, the Span- 
iards paused at the threshold, spellbound. Twelve 
gigantic statues of wood confronted them, counter- 
feiting life, with such ferocity of expression and such 
audacity of posture as could not but awe them. Six 
stood on one side, and six on the other side of the 
door, as if to guard it and forbid any one to enter. 
The first ones, those next the door, were giants 
about twelve feet high, the others diminished in size 
by regular gradation. Each pair held a difi^erent 
kind of weapon and stood in attitude to use it. 
The first and largest raised in both hands great 
clubs, ornamented a quarter of their length with 
points and facets of copper ; the second brandished 
broadswords of wood shaped much like the steel 



140 Hernando de Soto 

swords of the Spaniards. The next ones wielded 
wooden staves about six feet long, the end flattened 
out into a blade or paddle ; the fourth pair had 
tomahawks with blades of brass or flint ; the fifth 
held bows with arrows aimed, and strings drawn 
ready to shoot ; the sixth and last statues grasped 
pikes pointed with copper. 

Passing between the file of monsters, the Span- 
iards entered the great room. Overhead were rows 
of lustrous shells such as covered the roof, and 
the strands of pearls ; but interspersed among the 
strands of pearls were strands of bright feathers, and 
clusters of feathers strung on a fine, dull-coloured 
thread, so that the feathers and pearls seemed to be 
floating in the air. It was most beautiful. Look- 
ing lower, the Spaniards saw that along the upper 
sides of the four walls ran two rows of statues, fig- 
ures of men and women of natural size, each placed 
on a separate pedestal. The men held various 
weapons, and each weapon was ornamented with 
strings of pearls, coiling around them five or six 
times ; the pearls separated at regular distances by 
tassels of coloured threads, which much enhanced 
their effect. The women had nothing in their hands. 
All the space around these statues was covered with 
shields of skins and fine cane mats; and these were 
also ornamented with pearl ornaments and strinp-s 
of pearls brightened with tassels of thread. As in 
the other temple, the burial-chests were placed on 
benches around the four sides of the room, but in the 
centre, upon the floor, were also rows of caskets. 



Cofachiqui 141 

placed one on the top of another, rising hi regular 
gradation like pyramids. All of the caskets, large 
and small, were filled with pearls, and the pearls too 
were distributed according to size, the largest in the 
largest caskets, the smallest, the seed pearls, in the 
smallest Infants' caskets. In all there was such a 
quantity of pearls that, seeing it with their own eyes, 
the Spaniards confessed that what the princess had 
said about the temple was truth and not pride and 
exaggeration. As she declared, even if they loaded 
themselves with as much as they could carry (and 
there were more than nine hundred of them), and 
loaded their three hundred horses with them, they 
could not take them all ; there would still be hun- 
dreds of bushels of them left. And in addition 
there were, as in the other temple, great heaps of 
the largest and handsomest deerskins, dyed in dif- 
ferent colours, and the skins of other animals dressed 
with the hair on ; cured and dressed as perfectly, 
the Spaniards said, as could have been done in 
Germany or Muscovy. Around this great room 
were eight small rooms, all filled with different 
weapons — pikes, clubs, tomahawks, bows and ar- 
rows of all varieties, and of the most exquisite 
workmanship ; some with three-pronged heads like 
harpoons ; some two-pronged ; some with chisel- 
edges, like daggers ; some shaped like thorns. In 
the last room were mats of cane, so finely woven 
that there were few among the Spanish crossbowmen 
who could have put a bolt through them. 

The revenue officers again proposed to take out 



142 Hernando de Soto 

from the spoils the royal fifth that belonged to his 
Imperial Majesty, and to carry it away with them. 
But the Adelantado, as before, said that this would 
only embarrass the movements of the army with ex- 
cessive luggage ; that even now it could not carry its 
necessary munitions and provisions ; that all must 
be left just as it was. They were not dividing the 
land now, he reminded them, only discovering it ; 
when they did divide it, then he who should be in 
possession could pay the royal fifth. Upon this, 
the officers took nothing of all that they saw, but 
they returned to the village with enough and more 
than enough in their minds to stir their imaginations 
about the unexplored country before them. 

Greedily questioning the Indians if they knew of 
any still greater land or chief farther inland, these 
answered, as they had learned now to answer the 
Spaniards, to get rid of them, that further on was a 
greater and more powerful chief ruling over a richer 
country called Chiaha. De Soto made up his mind 
at once to march thither. The men and some of the 
officers protested that there was no need to travel 
any farther, for where they were the soil was rich, 
the climate temperate, and treasure abundant ; but 
it seemed as if the Adelantado, like the other Peru- 
vian conquerors, could be content with nothing less 
than the wealth of Atahualpa. And, says one of 
his soldiers, the Adelantado was a stern man and 
of few words, and although he was glad to sift and 
know the opinion of all, yet, after he had delivered 
his own, he would not be opposed, and always did 



Cofachiqui 143 

what he himself liked, and all others were forced to 
bow to his will ; and although it seemed an error 
to quit that country, yet there were none who could 
say anything against him after they knew his resolu- 
tion. Whenever any one would speak of wanting 
to settle where they were, he would answer with the 
argument that there was not food enough in that 
country to last the army a month, and that at any 
rate they must return to the port of Apalache, where 
Maldonado was to bring the ships. If no richer 
country could be found, he said, they could return 
to Cofachiqui whenever they chose. In the mean- 
time the Indians would be planting their fields and 
laying up stores of provisions for them. And so 
he ordered the march and prepared for it. 




CHAPTER XII 

XUALA, GUAXULE, CHIAHA, COOSA 

HEN the army left Cofachiqui, the prin- 
cess was taken along, carefully guarded ; 
and, according to the account of one of 
the Portuguese cavaliers, she was not treated with 
the usage she deserved after her kindness to the 
Spaniards. She was carried in a litter or marched 
on foot, followed by her women attendants ; and 
now, as always, a lady, it was she who, throughout 
her province, provided the supplies and gave the 
commands that secured pack bearers from one village 
to another, her messengers running ahead of the 
army to bear her orders. She also sent warriors into 
the next province to prepare the chief for the com- 
ing of the Spaniards, and to bespeak a peaceful re- 
ception for them. All along the march the Spaniards 
found numbers of captives taken from other prov- 
inces, working as slaves, with one foot maimed to 
prevent their escape, a savage substitute for chains. 
The last stopping place in the princess's domin- 
ion was the village Xuala,^ built on the slope of a 

1 Supposed to be the site of the present town of Qualatche at the source of the 
Catahootchc River. 

144 



Xuala, Guaxule, Chiaha, Coosa 145 

hill near the bank of a furious little river. Plenty 
of food and hospitable treatment tempted the Span- 
iards into a halt of fifteen days to rest their horses. 
When they started again, the princess instead of 
being dismissed was still carried along with them 
towards the next province. But on the first day's 
march beyond her country, she and her women, as 
they were walking along, quietly passed out of view 
in the woods ; and when the guard sought for them, 
they could not be found, nor the casket of pearls 
they carried with them. The Adelantado intended 
to take it from them, and only out of courtesy had 
let the princess keep it so far. 

The good treatment received in the next village, 
Guaxule, passed into a luck-word with the Spanish 
soldiers, who ever afterwards at a good throw of the 
dice would call out, " The house of Guaxule ! " 
The chief answered the messages of the princess of 
Cofachiqui by coming out with a retinue of about 
five hundred warriors to receive the strangers and 
conduct them to his village, where everything had 
been prepared for their entertainment. The village 
was prettily spread out among a number of small 
streams that ran down from the hills in the distance. 
The chief's house was given up to the Adelantado, 
and the rest of the village was turned over to him 
for the use of the army. The Indians in this part 
of the country had quantities of fat dogs, and seeing 
how much the Spaniards enjoyed the flesh of them, 
they gave freely and constantly of them. The 
Indians themselves seemed to eat no flesh but game. 



146 Hernando de Soto 

The Spaniards, deprived as they were of animal food, 
would so pine for it, that the sick soldiers would 
moan, " If I had but one piece of meat, I should 
get well." As the Indians here said that just ahead 
lay a great territory, a far larger and richer one than 
Guaxule, De Soto decided to push still on and not 
turn back until he saw it, although he calculated that 
he was nearly two hundred and seventy leagues from 
Apalache, his point of return. The Spaniards always 
remembered the little village of Canasauga ^ in this 
region as the place where a file of twenty Indians 
met them bearing on their heads baskets of fresh 
mulberries. 

The little streams that rippled past Guaxule, 
all joining together, formed a great river, which 
as the army followed it broadened and shallowed, 
and at last separated into two branches, flowing 
around an island which held a village, Chiaha — 
a pretty village, with a friendly chief and people 
eagerly curious to see the strangers, and simple 
and unaffected in showing it. They wished, they 
said, that they could open all the doors in their 
breasts so that the Spaniards might look with their 
own eyes into their hearts. The weather was hot ; 
and the army instead of quartering in the village 
camped in a beautiful meadow outside, where the 
men spread out at their ease, each one selecting 
his own tree for a tent. The horses were also 
given their ease in a large field about a quarter 

^ A small tributary of the Coosa; the Connesauga perpetuates the name 
of the village in modern geography. 



Xuala, Guaxule, Chiaha, Coosa 147 

of a league away, and they enjoyed it, for proven- 
der had been short and marches long ever since 
leaving Cofachiqui. 

With their camp so scattered and out of order, 
the Spaniards would have been in evil case to defend 
themselves, had the Indians set upon them, but the 
war and strife of the Apalachians had been left com- 
pletely behind with their country, so that the army 
felt as secure in the enjoyment of their good living 
as if in camp at home. In the cabins of the Indians 
the Spaniards found, to their delight, gourds of bears' 
fat, which melted in the mouth like butter, and 
tasted as good ; and walnut oil as clear as olive and 
as savoury ; and pots of wild honey, which they 
had never seen before in the country. But the 
Indians, pHed as usual with questions about the 
country, gave what was still better than jars of but- 
ter and pots of honey, for they said that in a prov- 
ince called Chisca there were many and rich mines 
of the yellow metal the Spaniards sought, and the 
chief even offered guides to lead safely there and 
back any Spaniards who would go and verify the 
story. Two soldiers at once volunteered and set 
out. 

While they were away, the chief gave to De Soto 
a beautiful string of pearls, a princely gift, if the 
jewels had not been discoloured by fire, for the string 
was two yards long, and the pearls as large as hazel- 
nuts. The Adelantado in return presented the 
chief with pieces of velvet and different coloured 
cloths, which he received with great expressions 



148 Hernando de Soto 

of gratitude. Being asked about pearls, he said 
that they were fished in his country, and that there 
were great quantities of them in the temple of 
his village and in the other villages of his prov- 
ince, and if De Soto wished, he could take all he 
wanted. The Adelantado then asking how the 
pearls were obtained from the shells, the chief 
promised he should see the next morning how it 
was done. That night forty canoes were despatched 
to the fishing-place, and in the early dawn great 
heaps of wood were piled on the river bank and set 
on fire. By the time the canoes returned, the fire 
had burned to coals, which were raked out, and as the 
shells were taken from the canoes they were thrown 
upon them. As the shells opened, Indians would 
seize them and thrust their fingers between them, 
and pick out the pearls. The first ones opened 
yielded ten or twelve pearls as large as peas. 

A curious accident happened here one day. A 
cavalier, lance in hand, was walking in a meadow 
near the river, when he saw some small animal, 
a coon or an opossum, running at a little distance 
from him. He threw his lance at it eagerly, for in 
the great lack of animal food the Spaniards were 
always wild for any game. The lance shooting 
past and ahead of the animal whizzed over the bank 
of the river. Here it chanced another Spaniard was 
sitting fishing. The lance drove through his head, 
going in at one temple and coming out at the other. 
The cavalier following to look for his lance found 
the man there dead, holding his fishing-rod in his 



Xuala, Guaxule, Chiaha, Coosa 149 

hands, the lance sticknig in his head. What most 
grieved the cavaHer was that the victim of his cruel 
throw was the one white-haired soldier in the 
army, " father," as his comrades all affectionately 
called him, and as a father in truth, respected by 
them all. 

The two explorers returned from their gold 
mines, which turned out to be the usual ignis 
fatuus — copper. As it was close on to August, 
and the men were rested, and the horses fat once 
more, orders were given to prepare to march. The 
kindly hospitality of the people, misunderstood, as 
hospitality often is, by the recipients of it, was now 
to be presumed upon. De Soto, incited by his 
men, demanded thirty Indian women-slaves to ac- 
company the army. But that night the Indians with 
their women and children fled from the village, the 
chief pretending that it was against his will and com- 
mand. A troop of Spaniards was sent in pursuit, 
ravaging the cornfields on the way ; but the Indians 
had taken refuge on an island where neither foot nor 
horse could get to them ; and so the army marched 
away without their slaves. 

At the other end of the island, on the point where 
the two branches of the river came together again, 
was another village named Acoste. Warned, per- 
haps, by runners from Chiaha, they gave the Span- 
iards quite a different reception. The chief made 
no pretensions whatever of friendship, and although 
he came outside of his village with his warriors to 
meet the army, it was with bows in their hands, and 



150 Hernando de Soto 

not to offer hospitality and courtesy, but fight. Not 
for an instant would they lay their enmity or their 
weapons aside, and the night was passed by both 
camps watching in arms, as if in front of a declared 
enemy. The next day the Spaniards crossed the 
river in the boats and rafts found moored at the 
bank, and pursued their way from Acoste, thanking 
God for deHvering them out of so tight a peril as 
that island-village might have proved, had peace 
once been broken. 

The next province belonged to a chief called 
Coosa. Over one hundred leagues the Spaniards 
journeyed through it, finding everywhere a fertile 
soil, and a thick population, passing ten or twelve 
villages every day, without counting those they saw 
at a distance to the right and left, and all showing 
contentment and prosperity. The Indians came out 
to receive the strangers with great demonstrations 
of friendship, lodging them in their houses at night, 
giving them with the utmost generosity all the food 
they had, and accompanying them along the road as 
far as the next village, and turning back only when 
they saw them well received. Sometimes the army 
slept in the villages, sometimes in the open fields, 
wherever the day's march happened to end. The 
chief's village lay at the other end of the province. 
He sent messengers almost every day, welcoming 
the Spanish general to his territory, and begging 
him and his men, the greatest compliment that hos- 
pitality had yet paid the Spaniards, to journey as 
slowly as possible through it, and to enjoy them- 



Xuala, GuaxLile, Chiaha, Coosa 151 

selves and feast themselves as much as they would 
in it. 

At the end of twenty three or four days, as they 
neared his village, they saw a brave assemblage ad- 
vancing to meet them, more than a thousand war- 
riors in war plumes, with bows and quivers. All 
were tall and well made men, and as they advanced 
in a solid body of twenty front, the Spaniards could 
not but exclaim at the sight. 

Coosa, the chief, a good looking young warrior, 
about twenty-six years of age, was borne in a litter 
upon the shoulders of his noblest warriors. He 
was seated upon cushions, and wore a magnificent 
diadem of feathers and a mantle of marten skins 
that fell in royal folds about him. Around the litter 
walked musicians playing upon pipes and chanting. 
Coosa made the customary speech of welcome with 
the air and manner suitable to the princely osten- 
tation of his reception of the strangers ; and his con- 
versation and answers to the questions put to him 
by the Spaniards did not belie the sense and judg- 
ment betokened by the expression of his face. On 
the whole, the Spaniards thought he was the equal 
in appearance of any prince brought up in a Euro- 
pean court. His village, built on the bank of the 
river (supposed to be the Coosa of to-day), looked 
what it was, the capital of a populous and prosperous 
province. It contained five hundred houses, all large 
and well built. The three houses that formed the 
chief's personal establishment were given over to the 
Adelantado and his officers ; one-half of the village 



152 Hernando de Soto 

had been evacuated for the soldiers, and they all 
were easily quartered in it. 

During the ten or twelve days' halt here, the 
entertainment was of the kind usually reserved in 
the Old World for very dear brothers ; for the 
chronicler says that none but so tender a word 
could express the geniality of the people to the 
Spaniards. That their good-will and esteern were 
sincere could not be doubted ; for one day after din- 
ner, during which Coosa and the Adelantado had 
talked much about matters pertaining to the dis- 
covery and conquest of the land, and the eventual 
settlement of it by the Spaniards, the young chief 
rose to his feet, and making a low bow to the Ade- 
lantado, and running his eyes over the cavaliers 
seated to the right and left of him, to include them 
all in what he had to say, made a speech. After 
praising the Spaniards and the fertility and resources 
of his land, he proposed to De Soto to make his 
settlement there, or at least to make a trial of 
the province by wintering in it. And again the 
Spaniards thought that the Adelantado could not 
fare better by going farther; but he, as before, reit- 
erated that under no circumstances would he settle 
in the interior of the country before first founding 
a port to receive his ships from Spain with the 
requisites of colonization. As it was getting time 
now, according to the plan laid down, to return to 
the sea to meet Maldonado and the brigantines 
which were expected soon, when the army started, 
he headed it for the south. In fact, ever since 



Xuala, Guaxule, Chiaha, Coosa i ^^ 

leaving Xuala, he had been curving the route 
towards the coast, to be within easy reach of it by 
winter. Coosa accompanied the army to his boun- 
daries, or was carried along as hostage, according to 
the policy of the Adelantado. 



CHAPTER XIII 



TUSCALOOSA 



TALISE ^ was the last village under Coosa's 
rule, and, as a frontier post should be, it was 
strongly fortified and well situated, the river 
almost encircling it in a bend and making a penin- 
sula of it. But the village was not entirely subser- 
vient and obedient to Coosa ; the double dealings of 
the neighbouring chief, Tuscaloosa," a fierce, arro- 
gant warrior, too astute and subtle to come to open 
warfare with Coosa, kept it in a disaffected, rebel- 
lious attitude towards its rightful chief The Spanish 
forces were not more than quartered in Talise 
before the son of Tuscaloosa arrived with a fine 
following of warriors, bearing greetings of peace and 
offers of service from his father. He was a youth 
of only eighteen, but of such fine stature that he 
stood breast high above the tallest man in the Span- 
ish army ; the tallest Indian he was yet seen in the 
country. Having delivered his message, and hear- 
ing that the Spaniards were journeying towards his 
father's territory, he said, with frank promptness : 

1 If Tallahassee be not merely a verbal echo of Talise, the latter exists to-daji 
in the town lying in the elbow of the Tallapoosa River. 

2 Tuscaloosa is Choctaw for Black Warrior. 



Tuscaloosa 1 55 

" To go there, although the distance is short, you 
have two roads ; I beg that you will command two 
soldiers to go by one and return by the other, so 
that they can see which would be the better for your 
army to take. I will give guides who will conduct 
them there and back in safety." His advice was 
taken ; the guides were sent, and upon their report 
the Adelantado selected his road, and the son of 
Tuscaloosa was dismissed with presents. 

Coosa here disappears from the narrative, " muy 
gentil hombre " to the last, as the Spaniards said. 
It was discovered that a soldier had remained behind, 
concealed among the Indians in his village. Every 
effort was made to induce the deserter to return to 
the army, but all in vain ; for most indecently, says 
the chronicler, he sent the Adelantado's messenger 
back with the reply, that he preferred living with the 
Indians to going on with the Spaniards. The Ade- 
lantado made a demand upon Coosa to cause his 
Indians to fetch the man by force. The young 
chief, however, with the greatest courtesy and polish, 
replied that since not all the Spaniards, as he de- 
sired, had chosen to remain in his country, he was 
much rejoiced that even one should by his own 
choice have done so, and that the general must par- 
don him if he did not use force against the man, 
whom he on the contrary greatly esteemed. The 
Adelantado then let the matter drop. 

Tuscaloosa did not wait in his own village for 
the Spaniards, but came forward to one of the 
smaller ones to receive them on the road. Early 



156 Hernando de Soto 

in the morning of the third day after leaving Talise, 
the army came in sight of him, posed in majestic 
state, in a beautiful plain, a village rising on a hill 
at his back. He sat on his royal chair, a seat hol- 
lowed out of solid wood ; at his feet were spread 
beautiful mats ; above his head was held a yellow 
banner striped with three bars of blue ; it was of 
buckskin, but it looked like the richest silk ; and it 
was the first banner seen by the Spaniards in Florida, 
and the one Tuscaloosa always carried with him 
wherever he went. Over a hundred warriors in war 
plumes and mantles stood round him. Like his son, 
Tuscaloosa rose above the heads of the tallest about 
him by a foot and a half To the Spaniards he was 
a giant. His face was handsome, but ominous of the 
stern ferocity and savageness of soul he afterwards 
showed. His eyes were as large as those of an ox ; 
his shoulders became his height, but the girth of 
his waist was not more than two-thirds of a Spaniard's 
sword belt ; arms and legs were straight and well 
joined to his body ; his shins were as long as most 
men's legs. In fine he was, say the SpaniardSj the 
perfection of colossal form and feature. He seemed 
barely forty years of age. 

The cavaliers and captains of the army riding in 
advance of the general gained no sign of recogni- 
tion from him, either by movement or expression ; 
it was as if he, like the Inca, Atahualpa, did not see 
them, or they were not passing before him. Luis 
de Moscoso cams up and spoke to him, and he and 
his escort coursed their horses to and fro, prancing 



Tuscaloosa 157 

them up to where he sat. But Tuscaloosa would 
only lift up his eyes to glance at them with disdain. 
He made no offer at all to rise when the Adelan- 
tado approached. So he, dismounting, went up to 
him ; they then embraced and the two remained to- 
gether while the army marched up into the village. 
Then, hand in hand, they followed until they reached 
the building prepared for De Soto ; there Tuscaloosa 
left him and strode away. The Spaniards remained 
in the village two days, and when they set out 
again, the chief and his retinue accompanied them, 
he resplendent and magnificent in a gorgeous gold 
embroidered scarlet coat and cap presented by the 
Adelantado. The chiefs on the march always rode 
on horseback, but when a horse was sought for Tus- 
caloosa, among all the chargers in the army there 
was not one that could bear such a weight as his, 
and the Adelantado would not hear of putting upon 
him the affront, in the sight of all Spaniards, of 
making him ride a mule. Finally, a hack belong- 
ing to the Adelantado, which for its strength had 
been used as a pack-horse, was impressed for the 
service ; but the chief was so tall that when seated 
in the saddle his feet nearly touched the ground. 

The march proceeded in a pleasant and leisurely 
fashion, each day advancing three to four leagues, 
until the principal village of the province, the one 
from •which both chief and province took their 
name, was reached. It was a strong place, built on 
the favourite site of the Indians, a neck of land, 
almost surrounded by a river, which was the same 



158 Hernando de Soto 

stream that flowed by Talise, but swelled to great 
volume, depth, and current. A day was given to 
crossing the army over it, and camp was pitched in 
a beautiful valley just beyond its bank. Here two 
soldiers were found to be missing, and it was sus- 
pected that the Indians, finding them astray from 
the camp, had killed them. But when the Indians 
were asked about them, their insolent answer was : 
Had they taken charge of the Spaniards ? Or what 
obligation were they under to account for them ? 
The Adelantado did not push his investigations 
with too much insistence, for fear of affronting the 
chief and provoking something worse ; but he 
stored the deed in his memory, and only deferred 
the moment of retribution until he could be sure 
of it. 

The next village on the road through Tuscaloosa's 
territory was Mauvila.^ All along the march, the 
chief had been sending messengers to it, to warn 
his people, as he explained to the Spaniards, to col- 
lect provisions and pack bearers for the army. The 
army halted within five miles of it, at the close of a 
beautiful June day. Luis de Moscoso was of the 
opinion that it would be wiser in the hot weather 
to keep on camping outside the village in the field, 
as they had been doing ; but the Adelantado, weary 
it is said of sleeping in the open, decided to camp 

^ The historian of Alabama, Pickett, says that he is satisfied that the site of 
Mauvila was upon the north banic of the Alabama at a place now called Choctaw 
Bluff, in Clarke County, about twenty-five miles above the confluence of the Alabama 
and the Tombigbee. It is needless to say that it gave its name to the city and bay 
of Mobile. 



Tuscaloosa 159 

outside only that night, and to lodge in the vil- 
lage during his stay there. 

The next morning at daylight he sent two sol- 
diers ahead, ordering them to spy round and find 
out what sort of place Mauvila was, and if it were 
true, as was famed all over the country, that Tusca- 
loosa had gathered great numbers of his people 
there for festivities and rejoicings over the arrival of 
the Spanish general and his army. The soldiers 
were to wait in the village for De Soto, who would 
ride immediately after them. So, as soon as they 
were well on their way, he, with a hundred cavaliers 
and footmen, followed by their slaves and the pack 
bearers of the army with the luggage, set out with 
Tuscaloosa to the village. The master of camp 
was ordered to follow promptly with the rest of the 
army. Riding quickly over the five miles, the 
party reached the village about eight o'clock. It 
was seated in a beautiful meadow, and surrounded 
and concealed by a wall — a great palisade three pike 
lengths high, made of well-grown trees, crossed by 
timbers almost as large, fastened together by vines 
and plastered with a thick mortar of mud and straw, 
which filled all the interstices and crevices, and 
formed a surface as smooth and unbroken as if 
made with the trowel of a bricklayer. About the 
height of a man, loopholes for arrows had been 
pierced ; and about every fifty paces were towers 
capable of holding seven or eight men. Numbers 
of trunks of trees, driven into the ground for posts, 
had taken root and had branched out all the length 



i6o Hernando de Soto , 

of the walls, crowning it with green and giving great 
beauty to it. There were but two gates, one open- 
ing to the east and one to the west. 

As the Adelantado and Tuscaloosa neared, bands 
of warriors came forward, dancing and singing ; and 
after the warriors came bands of beautiful Indian 
girls, likewise dancing and singing. They led the 
way into the village and through the one broad 
street that ran across from gate to gate. The Span- 
iards looked round in astonishment ; the houses 
were few in number, but they were as large as bar- 
racks, the smallest capable of holding five hundred 
men ; the largest, a thousand or fifteen hundred. 

The little procession came to a stop in the public 
square. The Spanish scouts were seen waiting to 
one side. De Soto and Tuscaloosa dismounted, 
and the chief, calling Juan Ortiz, said, pointing 
with his finger : " In that large house will lodge 
the general with his cavaliers, and the warriors 
he wishes to keep with him ; in that other one 
near it, his attendants and servants ; for the rest of 
the army, an arrow's flight outside of the walls my 
people have built huts of green branches where 
they can lodge, because the village is small and will 
not hold us all." The Adelantado replied that his 
master of camp would fix the quarters as the chief 
desired. Tuscaloosa then said something about 
remaining in the village and not being troubled 
with travelling any more with the army, and receiv- 
ing no reply from De Soto, he turned and strode 
away to his house, the largest one around the square. 



Tuscaloosa 



i6i 



and entered it. The other cavaliers dismounted and 
sent their horses outside the village to the place 
assigned for the camp. 

Gonzaio Quadrado Xaramillo, one of the scouts, 
now came up to the Adelantado. " My lord," he 
said, " I have been carefully examining this village, 
and what I have seen and observed gives me no se- 
curity whatever of the friendship of this chief and his 
people. On the contrary, I have an evil suspicion 
that they have planned some treason against us ; in 
those few houses you see there, are more than ten 
thousand warriors, picked men, for there is not an 
old one among them nor a menial ; and they are 
armed to the teeth ; and those other houses are filled 
with weapons ; they are magazines of arms. And 
besides, although there are a great many women in 
the village, all are girls; not one among them has a 
child, nor is there a child to be found in the whole 
place; thus they are all free and without impedi- 
ment. For an arquebuse-shot, all around the vil- 
lage, the ground, as you may have seen, has been 
cleaned and cleared so carefully and particularly 
that even the roots of the grass have been pulled 
up by hand, which seems to me to mean that they 
are going to give us battle, and nothing in the 
world will prevent them." Warning was passed 
from mouth to mouth to the Spaniards standing 
round to be on their guard ; and Xaramillo was 
ordered to see Luis de Moscoso as soon as he 
arrived and post him as to how matters stood, so 
that he could make his arrangements accordingly. 



1 62 Hernando de Soto 

In the meantime, a great council of war in the 
building that Tuscaloosa had entered was deciding 
upon the last arrangements for the massacre of the 
Spaniards. For all along Tuscaloosa had been 
determined to slay them in the village of Mauvila, 
which he had selected for the purpose. For this 
he had sent his son to welcome them, and spy out 
what their wishes were, and their manner of weap- 
ons ; and for this, he had himself gone to meet 
them, to conduct them thither, where his messen- 
gers had collected that great concourse of warriors, 
not only from his own people and subjects, but 
from among all his neighbours and allies, inviting 
them to join in the triumph and glory of put- 
ting an end to all the Christians at once, promising 
them as a reward Spaniards for slaves, and horses 
to ride, and plunder of scarlet coats and caps. 
Looking round him, Tuscaloosa saw the bravest 
and most noted warriors of all that region. He 
told them to decide promptly what they were going 
to do : whether they would at once kill the Span- 
iards who were at present in the square, and after 
them the others as they arrived, or whether they 
would wait until all came up. The warriors fell 
into a division ; some advised not to wait for the 
rest of the Spaniards to come up and increase the 
difficulty of the enterprise, but to kill those that 
they already had under their hands, and afterwards 
the others as they arrived. Others, the braver ones, 
said that as they, the Indians, had the advantage of 
the Spaniards in valour, agility, and fleetness, as well 



Tuscaloosa 1 6^ 

as in numbers, it showed fear to fall upon the Span- 
iards in small divisions. Let them all come together 
and then at one blow kill them all, for that would 
be greater triumph and honour, and a deed more 
fitting the fame of Tuscaloosa. Those of the 
former opinion contended that the Spaniards to- 
gether would then be able to make a better defence, 
and kill more Indians; that what the warriors 
wanted was to kill all the Spaniards, and the best 
and surest way was the one that was safest to them- 
selves. This last counsel prevailed, although the 
other suited Tuscaloosa's pride and daring better. 
But he was so impatient to begin the killing that 
every moment of delay, however short, seemed to 
him long. And so the warriors agreed to seize the 
first excuse that offered ; and if no excuse offered, 
they would make one. With enemies, they said, 
it was not necessary to seek reasons for killing them. 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE BATTLE OF MAUVILA 




HILE this was going on, the servants of 
the governor, in the lodgings appointed 
him, had gone busily to v/ork preparing 
breakfast. When it was ready, the Adelantado was 
asked to come to table. He sent Juan Ortiz to 
summon Tuscaloosa, to eat with him. Juan Ortiz 
gave his message at the door of the chief's house, 
as the Indian attendants would not let him enter. 
They answered that Tuscaloosa would come pres- 
ently. Some time passed; Tuscaloosa did not ap- 
pear. Juan Ortiz went again with his message to the 
door, and received the same reply. After another 
interval of waiting for Tuscaloosa — a good long one 
— he went a third time, telling the guards to say to 
Tuscaloosa that he must come at once, for the Ade- 
lantado was waiting and the food was upon the table. 
Thereupon a magnificent warrior stepped to the 
door. "Who," said he, arrogantly, " are these vaga- 
bonds and thieves who are calling to my chief, Tus- 
caloosa, their 'come, come !' as if they were talking to 
one of themselves ? By the Sun and the Moon, there 
is no one here who is going to put up with their 
insolence ! " 

164 



The Battle of Mauvlla 165 

The words were not out of his mouth before a 
warrior, coming up behind, put a bow and arrows 
in his hand, and he, throwing his marten-skin 
mantle back, placed the arrow on the string and 
aimed it at a group of Spaniards standing in the 
square. Balthazar de Gallegos happened to be 
standing just by the side of the door. In a flash he 
drew his sword and gave the Indian a cut that 
opened him from shoulder to waist. The warrior 
fell over the threshold dead. Then the fight began. 
The first in the rush of the warriors from the door 
was a beautiful-looking youth, perhaps the son of 
the first warrior. He shot six or seven arrows at 
Gallegos with frightful skill and quickness, but see- 
ing them fall harmless from the armour of the Span- 
iard, he took his bow with both hands, and closing 
with him he thundered five or six blows over his head 
so strong and quick that Gallegos saw stars dancing 
before his eyes. With blood streaming down his face, 
the cavalier gave two thrusts of his sword, and the 
young warrior fell dead over the old one. 

A prolonged war-cry now rose from every quarter 
of the village, and from every house in sight Indians 
poured out, and charged upon the Spaniards in the 
square. So great was their number, and so wild and 
furious their rush, that the Spaniards, like leaves 
before the hurricane, their feet barely touching the 
ground, were borne along before it, and cast out- 
side the gate more than two hundred paces, into 
the open field. The horsemen flew to get their 
horses before the Indians should reach them. The 



1 66 Hernando de Soto 

quickest of foot managed to reach them and mount ; 
the slower reached them only hi time to cut their 
halters, so that they could escape the arrows shot at 
them. But there were some who could not do even 
this, and their poor beasts were shot to death by 
swarms of dancing Indians, who emptied quivers of 
arrows into them. The pack bearers and the slaves 
of the Spaniards had remained outside the village, 
laying their packs down all over the ground near by 
the walls, and waiting for orders to direct them to 
their quarters. And now while one band of the 
men of Mauvila was killing the horses, and another 
pursuing the hard-pressed Spaniards, a third, leap- 
ing from the walls, made these Indians take up their 
packs again and carry them into the village, where 
the chains were struck off from the slaves, and 
bows and arrows given to all to fight with. Thus 
the luggage of the army, the clothing and the pearls 
and all the property of the Spaniards passed into the 
hands of the Indians, and the cavaliers and soldiers 
were left with only what they had on their backs. 

The few cavaliers who had been able to mount 
their horses charged upon the furious mass of In- 
dians, before whom the little handful of Spaniards 
on foot, fighting with might and main for their lives, 
were retreating down the open field. The shock of 
the horses gained them a moment's respite in which 
to reform their ranks ; and now in two divisions, 
footmen and horsemen, they turned and charged 
upon their pursuers, and fired by the disgrace and 
humiliation of their flight, they did not stop until 



The Battle of Mauvila 167 

they had driven the Indians l)ack within their walls. 
The gates were pushed to and barred. The Span- 
iards beat and strove against them, but such a storm 
of arrows and stones fell from the wall and towers, 
that they were forced to withdraw out of their range. 
Seeing the Spaniards again retreat, the Indians made 
another furious charge, dashing out of the gate and 
leaping over the wall ; and the Spaniards, cursing in 
their shame of it as they did, were again hurled back 
more than two hundred paces, but facing their ene- 
mies, and fighting steadily, shoulder to shoulder. 
They knew that in order and discipline alone lay 
their one chance of safety, and a slim enough chance 
that was, few as they were, and in such sore need of 
the rest of the army, which still did not come up. 
Again they charged, and drove the Indians back 
into the village ,' but again the walls were too deadly 
for them, and they were forced to retire. And so, 
advancing and retiring, charging and retreating, they 
fought without pause for the space of full three 
hours, always retreating, however, a little farther, to 
draw the Indians farther and farther from their 
walls and out into the open, where the horses could 
have more ground and space for their charges.. 

And in their rear, coming up and falling back, with 
them, now close at their shoulders, now careering 
at full speed away from their rear, rode the young 
Dominican priest, Juan de Gallegos, the brother of 
Balthazar. He wanted to give his horse to his 
brother, and kept calling to him at the top of his 
voice to come and get it ; but Balthazar, in the 



i68 Hernando de Soto 

front rank of the fighters, had no time to respond, 
nor would he have left his place. And thus, in one 
of his retreats, an Indian happened to clap eyes upon 
the priest and planted an arrow between his shoul- 
ders. The wound was only a slight one, for besides 
hood and gown, the friar's back was protected by his 
large felt sombrero, that had slipped from his head 
and hung by its cord round his neck like a shield. 
After that the friar kept his distance from the 
combat. Many Spaniards had already fallen, dead 
or wounded, but the greatest loss, and the one 
which caused most pain and grief to comrades and 
soldiers, was that of Don Carlos Enriques, a cavalier 
of Badajoz, who had married the niece of the Ade- 
lantado, and who was by all odds the best loved man 
in all the army. He was on horseback and fighting 
like the bravest of cavaliers, as he was, when, in one 
of the charges, his horse was shot by an arrow, just 
above the breastplate ; and as he retreated he bent 
over to draw the arrow out, passing his lance to his 
left hand, and stretching himself over the horse's 
neck and pulling at it. The turn of his head ex- 
posed a streak of throat; instantly a three-pronged 
flint-headed arrow cut across it like a knife, and he 
fell from his horse, almost beheaded. 

The Indians, seeing their great disadvantage in 
the open ground on account of the horses, now, with 
shrill cries, called their forces together from all over 
the field, and falling back into the village, closed the 
gates and manned their walls. De Soto called upon 
the best armoured cavaliers to dismount and storm 



The Battle of Mauvila 169 

the gate. Quick as his word they formed a column 
and, holding their shields over their heads, they 
dashed upon the gate with their axes, cut it open, 
and with one impetus charged through it. Not to 
be kept outside and lose time from the fight by wait- 
ing to push through the narrow openings, other 
Spaniards assaulted the wall itself, and with quick 
blows of their axes cut great breaches in the smooth 
mortar, and clambering over on the crosspieces, 
jumped down inside. When they saw the Span- 
iards again inside the village, the Indians, maddened 
to fury, threw themselves upon them and fought like 
wild beasts ; up and down the broad mainway, in and 
out the passages between the houses and from the 
roofs. The Spaniards were shut in, front, rear, and 
above. 

It was the fourth hour of the fight, and it was 
as dogged as at the first. The Indians still serried 
and firm, the Spaniards steadily using their swords 
and lances, but finding that the more they killed 
the deadlier and fiercer was the spirit against them. 
Command was given to fire the houses ; in an 
instant sheets of flame and smoke rose from the 
nearest ones. The roofs were thatched with straw, 
dry as tinder, and in another instant, in the small 
enclosure, the heat of hell was added to the carnage, 
the blood, the dust, and the noise. Up to this time 
the Adelantado had fought on foot; now, running 
out of the village, he seized a horse. Nuno de To- 
bar followed him, and the two soon came thundering 
back like a whirlwind through the mainway, calling 



lyo Hernando de Soto 

out, " Our Lady ! " and " Santiago ! " and shouting 
to their men to make way. The Spaniards opened 
ranks, and on they rode through and broke into 
the mass of fighting Indians in front, and charged 
through them, from one end to another, lancing to 
the right and left, the Indians rushing together be- 
hind them, like water behind the keel of a vessel ; 
and when the cavaliers turned their horses again, a 
solid front of fighters met them. Back and forth 
they charged, shouting their battle-cry, arrows follow- 
ing them like a cloud of dust, pelting their armour 
and dropping off. While De Soto was rising in his 
stirrups to give a thrust of his lance, an Indian sent 
an arrow through his coat of mail into his thigh. 
There was no time to have the arrow pulled out, so 
he fought the rest of the day standing in his stir- 
rups, a feat of horsemanship that was ever afterwards 
cited with admiration by his men. 

The flames raging more furiously from minute to 
minute, the village was now one sheet of flame. 
There was no escape from it. The Indians fight- 
ing on the roofs did not have time to leap down 
from the blazing thatching ; the women crowding 
the inside could not get out and were suffocated in 
heaps, and thousands perished. The cavalry now 
surged back and forth in the public square ; and 
here the wind would blow the smoke and flames 
now upon the Indians, blinding and driving them 
back, now against the Spaniards, driving them back, 
when the Indians would charge forward and regain 
all the space that they had lost. Wild with heat 




"Back and forth they charged." 



The Battle of Mauvila 171 

and thirst, the Spaniards would run for drink to a 
pool near the walls ; it was running blood, but 
even so they drank and returned to the fight. 
Four o'clock came, and the eighth hour of the 
fight. 

The Indians, seeing what numbers had gone 
down under fire and steel, and that their ranks 
were weakening for want of fighters, called now 
upon their women, crying to them to take up arms 
and avenge the death of their men, and if they 
could not avenge them, to do as the men were 
doing, die rather than be made the slaves of the 
Spaniards. Women were already fighting by the 
side of the men, but now, when that cry came, all 
responded, not one held back ; on they ran, grasp- 
ing from the ground swords, partisans, lances, or 
bows and arrows, which they used with the skill 
and strength and deadly ferocity of the men. It 
was like pouring oil upon a conflagration, and the 
fight was such as the Spaniards had never seen. 
The women braved death even more recklessly than 
the men, throwing their naked breasts upon the keen 
weapons of their enemies, so as to seize the points in 
their hands. The Spaniards, their foes being women, 
and fighting only to die, weakened against them, 
and refrained from killing them, admiring them in 
truth for their youth and beauty and fierce indomita- 
bleness. And all day long the drums and trumpets 
had not ceased to sound loud and clear for the rear- 
guard to make haste and come to the relief, and 
still it did not come. The master of camp was 



172 Hernando de Soto 

taking his time about it, and when he drew his 
army out, his men, careless and lazy after the long 
peace and good time that summer, scattered over 
the fields and advanced at their ease and leisure, 
picking fruit, laughing and talking, wandering for- 
ward like a picnic party. It was not until about 
four o'clock in the afternoon that they came within 
earshot of the village, and heard the drums and 
trumpets, and cries and shouts, and saw the smoke 
boiling out as if from the crater of a volcano. The 
alarm ran from mouth to mouth ; fear and anxiety 
hurried them along fast enough now, and they 
raced, each man for himself, and came running into 
the village. The Indians trying to head them 
off, the fight flared up again outside the wall, and 
for a space the contest was as hot outside as in. 
Ten or twelve horsemen, who were not to be 
stopped, spurred their way in, among the first 
Diego de Soto, the brother-in-law of Don Car- 
los Enriques. Hearing of the fate of Don Carlos, 
he threw himself from his horse in a passion to 
avenge him, and with shield and sword flew through 
the bloody corpse-strewn mainway to where the 
fight was fiercest and hottest. He had barely 
reached it when he fell with an arrow shot through 
his eye, coming out at the back of his neck. 

And now, one by one, by tens, and finally by 
columns, the rear-guard came into the fight. Fresh 
and eager, they threw themselves in front of their 
tired, straining comrades ; and the reenforcement 
told. Soon about the middle of the open place 



The Battle of Mauvila 173 

stood only a hollow square of warriors and women, 
in the culmination of their desperation, hoping and 
caring for naught but to die fighting. The horses 
leaped upon them, trampling them down, charg- 
ing upon them with such impetus that they over- 
threw the Spaniards, fighting on the other side. 
Over and over again they charged, until the hoofs 
of the chargers trampled only the dead, for not 
one would surrender ; all died there standing, fight- 
ing like the superb soldiers they were, says the 
Spanish chronicler. This was the end; the battle 
was over ; the Spaniards had at last won the day. 
It was sunset; both sides had been fighting for nine 
hours, but all was now over. Not all ! — one war- 
rior still fought, until, looking round, he saw that 
his people were all dead and gone — all; that he 
alone was left alive. He turned, and with the light- 
ness of a deer ran to the wall and leaped upon it. 
Below him, on the outside, the Spanish foot and 
horse were chasing Indians and killing them all 
over the field. There was no escape for him there, 
and his pursuers were upon him. He loosed the 
string from his bow in a flash, twisted one end 
round the branch of a tree growing in the wall, 
the other round his neck. A spring, and as the 
Spaniards reached him, he hung dead. 



CHAPTER XV 



AFTER THE BATTLE 




IHE Adelantado ordered the killed to be col- 
lected for burial, the wounded to be carried 
to the surgeon. The dead amounted to 
eighty-two men ; eighteen of them had arrows stick- 
ing in the mouth and eyes, the Indians by this time 
having learned to aim not at the armoured body, but 
at the face. Forty-five horses were killed. There 
were seventeen hundred and seventy wounds for the 
surgeon to treat; that is, dangerous wounds that 
he alone could attend to — deep cuts in flesh and 
muscle, shattered bones, broken skulls, arrows in 
the back, bones, or joints. The slight wounds, such 
as arrows in the calf of the leg, hips, arms, or body, 
which caused no fear of death or lameness, were 
cared for by the men themselves, one wounded man 
tending another. There was hardly a man in the 
army that came out of the fight with less than five 
or six of these slight wounds ; many of them had 
ten or twelve. 

There was only one surgeon in the army, and he 
now proved himself neither competent nor skilful, 
but stupid and almost good for nothing. And this 

174 



After the Battle 175 

was not the worst. In their dire extremity, the 
Spaniards found that they had no medicaments ; that 
the oil, bandages, and lint had been destroyed ; and 
not only that, but all the supply of linen clothing, 
the sheets and shirts, that could have been used for 
bandages and lint, and, in fact, all the clothing of 
any kind whatsoever, had been carried into the vil- 
lage by the Indians and there burned in the fire 
that the Spaniards themselves had kindled. There 
was nothing even to eat, for all the food, that which 
the Spaniards had brought and that which the 
Indians had in their houses, had been consumed, 
too, by the flames, to the last grain. Without a 
physician worthy of the name, without remedies, 
bandages, or lint, without food or clothing to cover 
themselves with, without shelter, even, in which to 
escape from the cold and the night — such was the 
condition of the Spaniards after their victory. And 
even if they had wished to go in search of anything, 
the darkness and their ignorance of where they were 
prevented ; and so exhausted were they that they 
could hardly stand on their feet. The only abun- 
dance they had, says the chronicler, was in sighs and 
groans. They prayed to God for help, and he 
helped them — as he always does help the brave — 
for he sent them the reflection that there was no 
help for them but what came from their own 
strength and courage. So they recovered heart, 
and, all at once and with energy, went to work to 
relieve the situation, each man helping the man 
who was worse oflT than himself. 



176 Hernando de Soto 

To procure shelter, some ran to the huts put up 
by the Indians for the encampment, and, fetching 
away the twigs and branches, built sheds against the 
portions of the wall that were still left standing. 
Others opened the bodies of the dead Indians and 
got out the fat for salves and oils to dress the 
wounds ; others brought straw to cover the sufFererSo 
One party stripped their dead and living compan- 
ions of their shirts ; and of these the linen ones 
were reserved for the dressing of the most danger- 
ous wounds. Another party busied themselves in 
butchering the dead horses to get the meat for 
broths and teas, for there was nothing else to 
nourish the sick with. And in addition to all this, 
they did sentinel and guard duty, although there 
were only few among them capable of bearing arms. 
A very small force of Indians that night could 
have accomplished Tuscaloosa's design and finished 
them all. 

Eight days the Spaniards lived in the miserable 
sheds against the walls. When they were able to 
leave them, they went to the huts made by the In- 
dians for their encampment, where they remained 
for fifteen days, waiting for their wounds to heal. 
Those who had the slightest wounds went on re- 
connoissances to the villages round about to look, 
for food. The villages were small, but there were 
great numbers of them; and in all were found many 
wounded Indians, but never a sound man or woman 
tending them. The Spaniards believed that Indians 
hidden in the woods came at night to minister to 



After the Battle 177 

them, returning to the forest by daylight. No In- 
dian was seen in the fields nor on the road ; and 
the horsemen hunting captives to get information, 
caught in all only fifteen or twenty. Questioning 
these as to whether the Indians were collecting any- 
where to come out again against the Spaniards, they 
said that, as in the last battle all their strongest, 
most noble, and valiant warriors had perished, there 
were none left to take up arms. And this seemed 
to be the truth ; for in all the time that Spaniards 
were in that encampment, no Indians appeared, 
even to give a war-cry or false alarm. 

The Spaniards believed that upwards of eleven 
thousand of them had perished. More than twenty- 
five hundred bodies were found around the village 
outside of the walls, among them the body of the 
splendid young warrior, Tuscaloosa's giant son. 
In the village more than three thousand more were 
found ; one could not walk in the main road nor 
in the passages between the houses without stepping 
upon corpses. The fire, the Spaniards calculated, 
must have consumed more than thirty-five hundred, 
for in one house alone upwards of one thousand 
burned corpses were found, and the pity of it was, 
to the Spaniards, most of them were women. For 
a distance of four leagues all around the village, in 
the thickets and hollows, the Spaniards reconnoi- 
tring the country found more than two thousand 
dead or wounded Indians who had tried to get to 
their homes but could not ; and it was pitiful to find 
the wounded ones moaning all alone in the forest. 



lyS Hernando de Soto 

Of the fate of Tuscaloosa himself, nothing cer- 
tain was ever learned. Some of the Indians said 
that he had fled and escaped, others that he had 
perished in the fire, and this last seems the more 
probable and worthy of him. 

There was a loss from the fire that the Spaniards 
suffered from in another than a bodily way — this was 
through the burning of the wheaten flour and the 
wine, set apart and carefully guarded for the Sacra- 
ment, with the chalice, altars, and ornaments and 
all other appointments for divine worship. And 
from that time on the celebration of the Mass in 
the army became an impossibility, because there was 
no wine nor bread to consecrate for the Eucharist. 
It was debated among the priests and officers 
whether bread of corn might not be consecrated, 
but it was agreed that, in their ignorance, it was 
safer not to do so. And so the matter was left ; for 
even if the priests had found anything to conse- 
crate for the Eucharist, they would still have lacked 
chalice and altar. Nevertheless, every feast day 
and Sunday the priest, in vestments of deerskin, 
would stand before an altar of their own making 
and repeat the creed and prayers and read the 
Epistle and Evangel, and preach the sermon. The 
soldiers called it dry Mass, and it was all they had 
during the rest of their sojourn in Florida. 

On the march to Mauvila, the Adelantado had 
gathered from the Indians the information that two 
ships were sailing along the coast. This was con- 
firmed by the captives after the battle, from whom 



After the Battle 179 

it was also learned that Achuse, where Maldonado 
was to brhig his ships, lay not more than six days' 
journey from Mauvila. This was news to rejoice 
all, for it meant the end of the long march in the in- 
terior, and the beginning of the settlement and own- 
ership of the land. The Adelantado could now fix 
a colony in the port of Achuse as he had planned, 
where he could safely receive vessels from all parts ot 
the world, and then he would found another colony 
some twenty leagues in the interior, whence he could 
rule all the Indians of Florida, and bring them into 
subjection to the Roman Catholic faith and the crown 
of Spain. 

But never is a great scheme conceived by man 
but there is conceived at the same time the discord 
that is secretly to destroy it ; and the door through 
which discord entered this expedition was, as ever, 
the lust and greed of men. The soldiers who had 
been in the Conquest of Peru, and had seen the 
great wealth of gold and silver there, were ever 
vaunting that country ; and as, on the contrary, 
there had been no gold nor silver found in Florida, 
it seemed impossible for them to be contented with 
the idea of settling and colonizing this land. And 
to their disappointment about the gold and silver 
was added that of the incredible fierceness of the 
battle of Mauvila, which had strangely discouraged 
them. So, when they heard of the ships at Achuse, 
they began to talk about wanting to leave the 
country, to get out of it as soon as possible. They 
said it would be impossible to conquer so warlike. 



i8o Hernando de Soto 

or to subdue so free and independent a people, and 
that, judging from what they had seen, neither force 
nor cunning would ever bring them under the yoke 
of Spanish dominion ; that they would all let them- 
selves be killed first. There was no use, the mal- 
contents argued, going along, wasting away their 
strength little by little in that country, when they 
could go to other wealthy ones, already conquered, 
like Peru and Mexico, where they could enrich them- 
selves without so much work. Therefore they 
thought it would be well, as soon as they reached 
the coast, to leave the cursed land they were in and 
go to a New Spain. Such, and other similar ideas 
were whispered and passed round ; but not so se- 
cretly that it did not come to the ears of loyal friends 
of the Adelantado ; and through these he heard 
what was going on in the army, that the soldiers 
were talking about leaving the country as soon as 
they came to any ships or boats whatever. 

The Adelantado would not credit it, without first 
testing the truth for himself And so he went the 
rounds of the camp at night in disguise, spying and 
listening, and thus heard no less a personage than 
the royal treasurer, Juan Gaytan, and others in his 
hut, plotting together, as soon as they arrived at the 
port of Achuse, to take the ships and sail to Mex- 
ico' or Peru, or return to Spain. There was no 
doubt left in the mind of the Adelantado ; his army 
was disbanding, and his men looking out for other 
places to go to, abandoning him as Francisco de 
Pizarro had been abandoned in the beginning of the 



After the Battle i8i 

Conquest of Peru. And he knew if these men de- 
serted him and went away, there was no possibility 
of ever raising a new army; that he would be left, 
dispossessed of his position, authority, and reputa- 
tion, with all his wealth wasted in vain, and all his 
excessive toil lost. 

The blow struck keenly, and upon a man so jeal- 
ous of his honour as De Soto, it could not but have 
an instantaneous and desperate effect. But putting 
vengeance and punishment out of his mind for the 
present, he dissimulated his anger and resentment, 
determined never to suffer the evil meditated by 
the weak, cowardly souls to come to pass. And so 
without giving any insight whatever into his feel- 
ings, or letting his anger be suspected, he carefully 
suppressed further tidings about the ships and se- 
cretly made his plans to lead the army imperceptibly 
again into the interior, and away from the sea-coast, 
and thus deprive the traitors of their opportunity to 
betray him. And here it was that De Soto's failure 
commenced ; this was the prime cause of the loss of 
his expedition. Deceived in his hopes and thwarted 
in his ambition for conquest and fame by his own 
soldiers, he was from that day a changed, a discon- 
tented, and an unhappy man. Never afterwards 
was the army able to accomplish anything that 
pleased him, or that he would even pretend to be 
pleased with ; on the contrary, he seemed to feel 
only contempt for it. And this disconcerted and 
dissatisfied his friends, who said among themselves 
that he should boldly have pursued his first plan. 



1 82 Hernando de Soto 

and gone to the seashore, where he could have put 
an end to the mutiny by punishing the heads of it, 
which would have frightened the rest of the conspira- 
tors, and still have saved his expedition. But how- 
ever clear-headed he was in habitual temper, the 
Adelantado threw his judgment away when in a pas- 
sion, or used it only to gratify his passion. To 
keep his men from suspecting his designs, he went 
about among them, encouraging them, telling them 
in a very different spirit from his usual frank one 
with his soldiers, to hurry and get well, so that they 
could leave that cursed country where they had suf- 
fered so much. 

On the twenty-fourth day after the battle, on 
Sunday the i8th of November, he broke up his 
camp, starting his army as if to return to Achuse in 
the same road they had travelled to Mauvila. 



CHAPTER XVI 

IN THE CHICKASAW COUNTRY 



^ I ^HE Adelantado marched without stopping 
I out of the territory of Tuscaloosa, and 
turning due north, entered into that of the 
Chickasaws. Here, a large village standing on the 
steep bank, of a deep river ^ brought him to a halt; 
for drawn up in front of it was a formidable look- 
ing band of about fifteen hundred warriors. Their 
defence, however, was only a show. When the 
Spaniards charged, they threw themselves into the 
river and crossed it swimming, abandoning the vil- 
lage, which had already been completely emptied 
of the women and children and provisions. They 
drew up on the other side, fronting the army, spread- 
ing out along the bank, as reenforcements arrived. 
That night and the following, noiselessly paddling 
over the river in canoes, they gave the Spaniards in 
camp little rest or respite from their attacks. The 
third night the Spaniards, hiding themselves in deep 
pits along the bank, lay in wait for them, and when 
the Indians had landed, and were well away from 
their canoes, they rushed out upon them and slashed 

^ The Black Warrior River, says Pickett, near the modern town of Erie, 
183 



184 Hernando de Soto 

them with their swords. After this, the Indians 
gave up crossing the river and concentrated all their 
energy upon guarding their own bank. 

Seeing that he was losing time waiting for the 
enemy to relax vigilance, the Adelantado ordered 
two large flat boats to be built, the carpenters work- 
ing back in the forest, to keep the Indians from 
finding out what they were doing. When the boats 
were finished, they were carried to the river and 
launched during the night, and before day each boat 
started over with ten cavaliers and a load of foot- 
men. The infantry rowed, while the cavaliers sat 
their horses, ready to leap on land the moment the 
boat touched. With all their efforts at silence and 
quiet, however, the quick ears of the Indians, patrol- 
ling opposite, heard them. Their war-cries broke 
out like the barking of watch-dogs, and it became 
now a race between the boats and the Indians to 
get to the landing-place first. The rowers bent 
and strained at their oars, but before they were half- 
way over every one of them had arrows sticking in 
him. As the first boat touched the bank and a 
cavalier jumped his horse ashore, Gonzalo Silvestre 
followed, and the two, charging the Indians, drove 
them back and gained time for the rest of their corps 
to land, repeating this charge until the other horse- 
men came to their assistance. The wounded infan- 
try rushed through the arrows to a cluster of cabins, 
where they cowered under shelter. 

By the time the second boatload had crossed, 
the Indians were retreating into the forest to make 



In the Chickasaw Country 185 

their way to a camp they had fortified there. The 
Spaniards pursued, but the Indians remained behind 
their pahsades ; and during the night they dis- 
appeared, and the army could resume its march 
next day through the country without hindrance — 
always the same flat, pleasant country, filled with 
small villages, well stored with beans and corn. 
Coming to another river (the Little Tombigbee), the 
Indians were again fiDund drawn up in line of battle. 
The Adelantado sent a messenger over with profilers 
of peace ; they slew the man in the face of the 
army, but then, as if satisfied, with a great shout 
they went away. The Spaniards built other boats 
and crossed the river, and marching on, came the 
next day to a remarkably large and pretty village,^ 
built on a rising plain crossed by rippling streams, 
and shaded by groves of oak and nut trees, stand- 
ing in the rich mass of years of fruitage. It proved 
to be the great village of the Chickasaws, the one 
which bore the name of the tribe and the chief. 
The cabins were empty and the crops still un- 
gathered in the surrounding fields. The Spaniards 
entered and took possession, and as it was now the 
first week in December, and the men were begin- 
ning to suffer greatly in their denuded condition 
from the cold, the Adelantado decided that no better 
place could be found in which to winter. The walls 
were repaired and shelters built for the horses, 
the corn was gathered from the field and neigh- 

^ This village is supposed to have stood on the west bank of the Yazoo River, 
some two hundred and fifty miles north of Mobile. 



1 86 Hernando de Soto 

bouring villages were raided for additional provis- 
ions. 

At first something like peace and quiet was en- 
joyed here. The only military employment of the 
men was to give the horses a short run every day 
when the weather permitted, and catch what In- 
dians they could to question for information about 
the country. By this time, as nearly every province 
travelled through had a different dialect, twelve or 
fourteen interpreters were necessary to communicate 
with the natives, Juan Ortiz standing at one end of 
the line and passing his sentence on from mouth 
to mouth, or from province to province, as the case 
really was, until it arrived at the last one under 
question. Most of the captives were at once set 
free and given presents to take to their chief, with 
messages inviting him to peace and friendship. To 
this the chief responded, also with presents of 
fruit, fish, and game ; and one time with as many 
as a hundred and fifty rabbits, and always with great 
promises of coming soon, sending excuses and mul- 
tiplying his falsehoods from day to day to entertain 
the Adelantado and keep him quiet. 

But soon he dropped his amenities, and opened 
his campaign ; a masterly one it proved. Every 
night the Spaniards were aroused two or three times 
by false alarms, the men jumping up and running 
out, but finding nothing to fight. This was kept 
up steadily for two months, and, as it turned out, 
was an industrious ruse to tire the Spaniards with 
keeping watch and to put them off their guard. 



In the Chickasaw Country 187 

One night, during the last week of January, a north 
wind sprang up and blew furiously. The Adelan- 
tado had his misgivings, and that very night had 
warned Luis de Moscoso to keep up a strong watch; 
but the very worst men in the army seemed to have 
been put on duty. It was about one o'clock, and 
the wind was at its height, when from the four sides 
of the village there came such a blast of horns and 
conchs, clatter of drums, and war-whoops, as made 
the wind seem still. 

The Spaniards sprang to arms, but before they 
got to their doors the roofs of their cabins were in 
flames, roaring and blazing in the wind, and the In- 
dians leaping in all around them. In four separate 
bands, the Chickasaws had crept up on the four 
sides of the camp. Each man carried a lighted taper 
made of a grass that grows in that part of the coun- 
try, which once lighted smoulders like the fuse of an 
arquebuse, until slung through the air, when it bursts 
into a flame. By fastening them to the tip of their 
arrows and shooting them, the Indians could fire a 
building at a distance. The Spaniards leapt through 
the flames, or crawled on all fours under them with 
what weapons they could snatch; but in whatever 
direction they ran, the wind drove the fire against 
them, while the Indians, springing nimbly and from 
shelter to shelter, shot them as they fled hither and 
thither in the confusion. The horsemen took no 
time to put on armour, or saddle horses, but as they 
were, in their shirts, jerked their steeds out by their 
halters, and jumping on their backs, galloped them 



i88 Hernando de Soto 

out of the flames. Many, to save themselves, were 
forced to abandon their horses. 

In the eastern quarter of the camp the fire and 
attack raged most furiously. Forty or fifty Span- 
iards stampeded in a panic, running away as fast as 
they could. But Nuno de Tobar, on foot, sword in 
hand, ran after them, shouting at the top of his 
voice: "Come back, soldiers, come back! Where 
are you running to ? There is no Cordova or 
Seville here to give you refuge ! " 

From the other side of the camp forty or fifty 
soldiers came running up just at the moment, and 
they, abusing the men for their cowardice, brought 
them to themselves, and all together they hastened 
round the village to a place where Andreas de 
Vasconselas with some twenty of his cavaliers were 
hard at work. And now from one direction and 
another men came running into the fight, closing 
with the Indians wherever they found them, and 
driving them back from the village. But where 
the hottest of the struggle was going on there was 
the Adelantado, holding his opponents at bay. He, 
who to be ready for such emergency slept always 
in doublet and hose, was on horseback and out 
of the village, fighting, before any other cavalier. 
When he saw his forces strengthening, he dashed 
forward with fresh spirit and strength. While 
rising in his right stirrup to give his lance full play, 
the saddle turned and pitched him head foremost 
into the midst of his enemies. Seeing his jeopardy, 
his men sprang to the rescue and fought so desper- 



In the Chickasaw Country 189 

ately, that, before the Indians could get at him, 
he was dragged out from among them. The sad- 
dle was instantly upon his horse again, and he in 
the saddle and back in the fight. The saddle had 
turned, because in the wild haste of the moment the 
groom had not buckled the girth, and the Adelan- 
tado had been fighting all this time with the sad- 
dle simply laid on the cloth. 

The Indians weakened, as they always did in the 
crisis of the fight, and the Spaniards were just about 
turning the tables against them when their cry to 
retreat was heard echoing all round the village ; and 
almost as suddenly as they came, they turned their 
backs and fled at full speed. The Spanish pursued 
as far as the light of the burning village extended, 
and then returned to count their loss. It was 
greater than they feared ; forty Spaniards killed and 
fifty horses. Twenty of the horses were burned in 
the stables, chained fast, for they had become so 
frolicsome and restive with high feeding and want 
of exercise that their masters had used chains instead 
of halters, and so the poor beasts had no chance to 
escape. 

Nearly all the hogs — four hundred of them — 
were burned to death. To guard them the better 
from the depredations of the Indians, who had 
become so greedy for them that they constantly 
stole them, the Adelantado kept them in the cen- 
tre of the village in a great pen covered with 
straw. This, of course, caught fire, and none of the 
hogs escaped except the little sucking pigs that 



190 



Hernando de Soto 



could run between the cracks of the posts ; and the 
hogs were so fat that, it was said, their melted grease 
soaked the ground for two hundred steps around 
the pen. Among other things related by the Span- 
ish soldiers of this night attack of the Chickasaws 
was that each warrior came to it with three ropes 
tied around his body — one to tie and carry away a 
Spaniard, one for a horse, and the third for a hog. 

Far more pitiable than after the battle of 
Mauvila was the plight now of the Spaniards ; for 
not only were the few clothes that remained to them 
burned, but all their weapons and saddles. It was 
well for them that the Indians did not attack them 
the next day. 

The Adelantado, who had never forgiven Luis de 
Moscoso for not coming up more quickly with the 
troops at Mauvila, now, after the negligence that 
had permitted the surprise of the camp, deposed 
him and appointed Balthazar de Gallegos master of 
camp. The village was in ruins and there could be 
no question of remaining in it, so three days after 
the attack, the army drew out from it, and with their 
remnants of luggage, camped in an open field about 
a league distant. Temporary shelters were put up 
with the timbers and thatching carried off from 
neighbouring villages. The soldiers called the en- 
campment Chickasilla, Little Chickasaw. Here a 
forge was contrived out of arquebuse barrels, with 
the bellows pieced out of bear skin, and in all haste 
and with all their energy, the men turned to making 
new lances, shields, and saddles, and to tempering 



In the Chickasaw Country 191 

their swords. As for clothing, they looked more 
like gypsies than soldiers : one without a coat, an- 
other without breeches, and all barefooted ; and the 
winter was severe, with frost and ice in plenty. 
Their only comfort was fires ; but they complained 
that they spent the whole night turning from one 
side to the other, for while one side warmed, the 
other froze. They did not sleep under shelters, 
for the Adelantado, fearing another conflagration, 
camped them in the open in four separate divisions, 
each one with pickets and sentinels posted. To 
secure against surprise during the night, every morn- 
ing five or six detachments of cavalry scouted the 
country in all directions and killed all Indians met. 
When they returned at sunset, they could truthfully 
say that there was not a live Indian in a circuit of 
four leagues around the camp. But within four or 
five hours at the latest, the Indians would be at the 
camp again, and seldom a night passed without a 
soldier or horse being wounded. 

The winter wore on to March, and what with the 
constant toil, the nightly skirmishes, the cold, and 
being every night on duty, barefoot, and with noth- 
ing on but breeches and a shirt of buckskin, the 
Spaniards always said they survived only through 
the mercy of Heaven and Juan Vega. Juan Vega 
was one of the common soldiers, a peasant, who one 
day bethought him of making a mat of the grass 
which grew long and pliable thereabouts, to cover 
himself with from the cold of night. He plaited 
it four fingers thick and so long and wide that on.G 



192 Hernando de Soto 

half served as mattress and the other as blanket. 
When he found how comfortable it was, he plaited 
quantities of them for his comrades and taught 
others to plait them. And so the men would take 
their mats with them to their guard stations at 
night, and wrapping themselves in them were able 
to resist the cold, from which otherwise, they said, 
they would have perished. 

They were glad enough when the first days of 
spring came, and they could move away from the 
Chickasaw country and proceed with their discovery. 
After marching about four leagues, the Adelantado 
halted for the night, sending as usual a troop of 
horse to reconnoitre the line of the morrow's route. 
The troop returned with the report that only a 
short ride distant, and in direct line of their route, 
was a stronghold,^ the most formidable yet seen in 
the country, filled with warriors, ferocious looking 
men, in war feathers and paint, with their bodies 
striped red, black, white, and yellow, and their eyes 
circled with rings of red, which made them look 
like devils. As soon as they saw the Spaniards, 
they beat their drums and with a great cry came 
out of the fort to meet them ; but the troop re- 
treated. The Adelantado at once went himself on 
a reconnoissance, and returning to camp said to his 
officers and cavaliers : " Before night we must drive 
the savages out of that fort ; for after their past 

^ This fort of the Alibamo has been located by Indian tradition upon the Yazoo 
River in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. The Alibamo Indians belong to the 
Chickasaw tribe. 



In the Chickasaw Country 193 

success, they are so little afraid of us that they are 
not going to let us leave their country without a 
fight, and if we do not punish them, they will come 
out and punish us to-night." Officers and cavaliers, 
burning for revenge for their sufferings during the 
winter, heartily agreed to this ; and various com- 
panies were at once ordered forward, a third of the 
army being left behind to guard the camp. 

The fort, about two hundred paces square, was 
without doubt a strong one — a palisade of the 
stoutest logs driven so close together in the ground 
that they overlapped. Inside, two other palisades 
crossed from wall to wall. The entrance was through 
three small doors, one in the centre, the other two 
close to the corners, but so low that a man on horse- 
back could not pass through. Almost underneath 
the rear wall, ran a narrow and very deep stream 
with high, sheer banks, most difficult for a man to 
climb, and utterly impassable for horses. The only 
bridge over it was a frail, narrow, swinging foot- 
log, anything but easy to cross. 

The Adelantado, after studying the situation, 
ordered one hundred of the best-armoured cava- 
liers to dismount, and forming in three columns 
of three abreast, to assault the doors ; the footmen, 
advancing behind and under their protection, were 
to support them and hold the doors after they 
were gained. He and Andreas de Vasconselas, 
with a troop of horse stationed on each side, were to 
charge when the proper moment came. The order 
was no sooner given than obeyed ; and the three col- 



194 Hernando de Soto 

umns were formed. The Indians, who up to this 
time had remained close within their walls, seeing the 
Spaniards ready to attack, now sallied forth, about 
a hundred men from each doorway, and with all 
dash and daring attacked the advancing columns of 
Spaniards. At their first discharge of arrows, two 
cavaliers in the front rank of one column fell, and 
one in each of the other columns. And after that, 
volley upon volley was shot, and men dropped out 
of their columns everywhere. The Spaniards, giving 
a loud shout to one another to close at once, broke 
into a furious charge upon the gates. At the same 
time the Adelantado and Andreas de Vasconselas 
charged from the sides with their troops of horse, 
and the Indians were driven back. The gates being 
too narrow to let them through, they were jammed 
and crushed and crowded against the walls, and cut 
down by the Spaniards, who leaped over their bodies 
and got inside the fort. Here was the entire force 
of the Indians, and here were the same small door- 
ways, and, as before, the Indians blocked them. 
When the Spaniards saw the Chickasaws penned in 
thus, all their hatred, from the incessant warfare, 
anxiety, sufferings, and cruelty of the winter rose 
in relentless fury within them, and their swords 
opened flood-gates of blood in the naked mass of 
bodies before them. It was the same against the 
other wall, in the second enclosure : it was carnage, 
not killing. Some of the warriors, sore pressed, 
leaped from the palisade into the plain, only to fall 
into the hands of the troopers outside. Those who 



In the Chickasaw Country 195 

could, got through the rear gates to the river, but 
the Hght foot-bridge, crowded with the confused 
mass, swayed and bent under them, and numbers 
fell, their bodies writhing and twisting through the 
air, into the river far below. Those who could not 
get to the bridge threw themselves into the river 
and swam across. On the other side of the river, 
reforming and ranging themselves in battle array, 
they still defiantly faced the Spaniards. De Soto 
with the two troops of horsemen rode up and down 
the bank looking for a ford, and the infantry drew 
up in a line facing the Indians. 

While thus waiting and watching each other, a 
warrior stepped out from the ranks of his people 
and, calling over to the Spaniards by sign, chal- 
lenged a crossbowman to come out and try skill 
with him. A hidalgo of Asturia accepted, and walk- 
ing out upon the bank, took his position, placed a 
shaft in his bow, and bending his head sideways, 
crossbowman style, aimed at the Indian; the Indian, 
straight and erect, aimed at him. Both drew string 
at the same instant. The Indian tottered and fell 
dead, hit full and fair in the breast. The Spaniard 
walked away, with the arrow sticking like a needle 
through the nape of his neck, which he had exposed 
in bending his head. 

The Adelantado, finding a ford, crossed the river 
with his horse and fell again upon the Indians, 
and put them to flight, pursuing and lancing them 
until night fell and darkness opened a refuge to 
them. As he had ordered, the fort was taken, and 



196 Hernando de Soto 

the Chickasaws were punished ; two thousand of 
them, at least, were killed in it. But not without 
cost ; for, although it is not stated how many Span- 
iards were killed, yet so many were wounded that 
the army was forced to halt for four days on this 
account ; and fifteen men died in camp and during 
the first days of the march. 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE GREAT RIVER 



TIFF and sore, the Spaniards crossed the river 
and drew out of the Chickasaw country, cursing 
it as cordially as they had done that of Tusca- 
loosa. Beyond lay a vast wilderness of forest and 
swamp, the neutral territory between the Chicka- 
saws and the next tribe. Always heading away 
from the sea-shore, De Soto led his men into this 
wilderness, almost impassable even for the horses, 
which had to swim across a great bayou and lake. 
Seven days it took them to get through, and when 
they came out to high land again and clear forest, 
they saw just before them a village, and as soon 
as they saw it, breaking through all order and disci- 
pline, they rushed forward and captured it, with 
every man, woman, and child in it, plundering the 
cabins of everything they could find. It was the vil- 
lage of Chisca,^ whose people, on account of the 
extensive forest lying between them and the other 
province, had heard nothing of the march of the 
Spaniards through the land; they knew nothing of the 

1 It is hardly necessary to say that Chisca is only a variation in the Spanish 
spelling of Chicasa, i.e. Chickasaw, and that the Spaniards, although they were 
rejoicing at being out of it, were still in the country of the Chickasaws. 

197 



igH Hernando de Soto 

Spaniards, in fact, until they saw them breaking into 
the village. Only the dwelling of the chief escaped 
capture. It stood outside the village on a very 
high mound, which was wailed like a fortress, hav- 
ing no way of ingress or egress save tall ladders. 
To this place some of the Indians fled for refuge. 

The chief Chisca lay in his bed, for he was very 
old and infirm. When he heard the noise and 
confusion below in his village, he arose, and com- 
ing out in front of his cabin, saw what was going 
on : the place being sacked and plundered and his 
people captured. Wild with rage, he seized a 
hatchet and started down the ladder, with fierce 
threats against each and all who came into his 
village without permission — the threats of his 
long-past youthful warrior days, for the poor old 
frame had not strength now to kill a cat ; and 
besides being ill and decrepit from age, the chief 
was so small and puny that the Spaniards held him 
ever to be the most insignificant looking of all the 
Indians they saw in Florida. His women and 
servants threw themselves upon him and with tears 
and prayers held him back, while the Indians who 
had fled from the village told him that the new- 
comers were men such as none of them had ever 
seen the like of before ; that there were great num- 
bers of them, and they were borne along upon 
great animals that ran most swiftly. If the chief 
wanted to fight, they said, he must remember he was 
taken oflf his guard and unprepared, and to revenge 
such an insult, he must call out all the people in 



The Great River 



199 



the province and bide his time and opportunity, 
feigning the while friendship with the enemy, and 
making the best of what had happened until the 
time for vengeance came ; to rush into a fight now 
would bring greater risk and insult to himself and 
damage to his people. But, reason as they might, 
it was a long time before they could dissuade their 
old chief from going down the ladder to fight the 
Spaniards, And his temper was such, that, when 
the Adelantado sent a message, offering him peace 
and friendship, he would not listen to it, saying that 
he wished no messages from one who insulted him, 
but war, and a war of fire and blood ; and this war 
he declared against the Spaniards at once, so that 
they could be prepared, for he meant to slaughter 
them all, and that soon. 

De Soto and his officers and soldiers during the 
past winter had been rather surfeited with fighting, 
and now, with numbers of men and horses still 
wounded and suffering from their last engagement, 
they had no inclination whatever for more of it. 
Embarrassed and vexed at having so recklessly 
sacked and plundered the village and angered the 
chief, they sent other and more and more urgent 
messages to him, using all the prettiest words and 
the politest and most suave phrases they knew. 
For they saw, with anxiety, that, in the three short 
hours they had been in the village, great numbers 
of warriors had rallied round the old chief, and 
they feared that greater numbers still would soon 
arrive to increase his already preponderating force. 



200 Hernando de Soto 

And they saw, too, that the position of the village 
was favourable to the Indians but very bad and 
unfavourable to themselves ; the ground being filled 
with trees and cut up with bayous, which would 
prevent their using their horses, a very necessary 
advantage to them now over the Indians. But 
what finally was of the greatest weight with them 
— and they had proved it well by their experience 
in the past — was the fact that wars and battles did 
not advance them a whit, but, on the contrary, the 
Indians killing off their men and horses were slowly 
and surely consuming their strength day by day. 
All of which made them want peace and want it 
heartily. 

The Indians, on the other hand, seeing their 
strengthening numbers, and smarting under the capt- 
ure of their women and children, wanted war, and 
would accept nothing but war, as the shortest and 
best way of obtaining restitution for their loss. 
However, there is always a proportion of prudent, 
even among the most daring warriors. These began 
to suggest that the peace and friendship offered by 
the Spaniards be accepted, as in that way, much more 
surely than by war, could the captured wives and 
children and lost property be recovered and such 
further damage prevented, as having their village 
burned and their fields destroyed when the time for 
planting was so near. What need, said they, to 
prove by trial the valour of the Spaniards? Their 
own senses told them very clearly what sort of men 
they were ; for men who could pass through so 



The Great River 201 

much country and so many enemies could not be 
other than the very bravest, whose peace would be 
far more profitable than their wars. 

After much talking this counsel finally prevailed, 
the chief accepting it and guarding his wrath until 
the hoped-for future opportunity should arrive. 
He therefore replied to the waiting messenger of 
the Adelantado that, first of all, the Spaniards must 
tell him what they required. The answer was that 
the Spaniards required nothing more than to have 
the village vacated and given to them for lodging, 
and, as no man had a dispensation from hunger, 
the necessary food, wliich would be little, for they 
were on the march and could not stay long in that 
territory. The old chief said he would be willing 
to grant this, but only and solely on condition that 
his captured people should be freed at once, and 
that all property taken should be restored without 
so much as an earthen pot missing ; and that if the 
Spaniards did not accept these terms, he defied them 
to battle then and at once. 

The Spaniards accepted ; the captives were set 
free and the plunder restored, not even an earthen 
pot, as the chief said, missing. The Indians then 
vacated the village, leaving the provisions in it. 
The sick and wounded were in such dire need of 
rest and refreshment that the army remained there 
six days. On the day before his departure, with 
the permission of the old chief, whose ire had 
somewhat abated, De Soto climbed up the mound 
to present his respects and thanks to him. 



202 Hernando de Soto 

Marching from the village, and just outside of it, 
the Spaniards came to the greatest river they had 
ever seen, the Mississippi.^ A half league broad 
it was, as they described it ; " and if a man stood 
still on the other side, it could not be discovered 
whether he were a man or not ; and it was of 
mighty depth and current, and the water was 
muddy, and brought along down stream continually 
great trees and timbers." The Indians called it the 
Chicagua River ; but the Spaniards called it in their 
accounts nothing but El Rio Grande — the Great 
River. They marched along the bank until, at the 
end of the fourth day, they came to a place where it 
was open enough to permit the army to get to the 
water, for hitherto it was not only covered by a for- 
est of the deepest and densest kind, but it was so 
steep and high that there was no way of getting 
either up or down. Finding an open field for a 
camp about a crossbow shot distant from it, the 
Adelantado halted to build boats. The great river, 
instead of stopping him, tempted him to cross and 
push his discoveries on the other side ; moreover, 
in Chisca the Indians told of gold on the other side 
of the river; and of a great and rich province called 
Capaha, lying over there. 

The forest furnished the best of timber, and the 
villages, corn ; and the work was commenced forth- 
with and pushed along briskly. Simultaneously 

1 They were at what is now known as the Chickasaw Bluffs, 32° N., having in 
their march wound their way over Florida, Georgia, part of South Carolina, Ala- 
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee, 




"The greatest river they had ever seen." 



The Great River 203 

witli the Spaniards on one bank, appeared Indians 
on the other ; a great gathering they seemed across 
the water, and provided with an innumerable quan- 
tity of canoes. Soon deputations began to arrive 
from them and from the chiefs round about, spying 
with eager curiosity, under feigned indifference. 
One day six Indians from the river below presented 
themselves, who said they came to see what manner 
of people the Spaniards were; for long ago they had 
been told by their fathers that a white people should 
come and subdue them ; another day, warriors came 
to announce the visit of a great chief, named Aquixo, 
chief of many towns and tribes on the other side of 
the river. And, as announced, Aquixo was seen ap- 
proaching with a flotilla of at least two hundred 
canoes, each with a file of Indians in war-paint and 
great war-plumes, with bows and quivers, and with 
shields in their hands, standing from stem to stern. 
The canoe of the chief had a canopy under which he 
sat. Paddling at full speed, they came swirling to 
within a stone's throw of the bank, when the chief 
called out a greeting to the Adelantado, who was 
standing there with his officers. The Adelantado 
called to him to come on shore, that they might the 
better talk together. The chief sent three canoes 
ashore with a present of a great quantity of dried fish 
and a bread which the Spaniards describe as made of 
prunes (the toothsome persimmon bread of the old- 
time southern pioneer). But the demonstrations 
turned out to be a piece of Indian treachery, the 
real purpose being to attack if possible ; for, when 



204 Hernando de Soto 

the Indians saw that the Spaniards were prepared — 
the Adelantado had drawn up his whole army in 
sight — they began to go away again. The cross- 
bowmen, with a loud shout, sent a volley after them. 
The Spaniards gazed after them with admiration, 
for they retired in such perfect order ; and the 
canoes were so symmetrical and graceful, the 
plumed warriors, with their bows and bright quivers, 
so erect, they seemed more like a festival pageant 
than a savage fleet. 

By the end of three weeks four boats were fin- 
ished and in the water. Three hours before day, 
one morning, the Adelantado embarked his first 
detachment ; horsemen, crossbowmen, and rowers, 
selected by himself as men who would make sure 
of the passage or die. They rowed a quarter of 
a league up the river, and then crossing over, fell 
down with the current opposite the camp. The 
horsemen leaped out of the barges on horseback and 
forded to a sandy plat of hard, clean ground, where 
all the men landed without difiiculty or opposition. 
The barges returned at once for another load, and 
within two hours after sunrise, the entire army with 
the baggage was over. 

Stopping only long enough to break up the boats 
so as to save the nails and fastenings, they resumed 
their march. They journeyed five days up the river, 
through a savage, uninhabited stretch of country, 
and then came to some high hills, from the tops of 
which could be seen a large village of about four 
hundred cabins on the bank of a river flowing 



The Great River 205 

towards the Great River, And up and down, the 
banks of the river were dotted with cornfields and 
groves of handsome trees. As the army approached 
the village the Indians came out eagerly to offer 
peace, and later on warriors came to De Soto from 
the chief, proffering the hospitality of his village, 
the principal one of the province, called Casquin 
(Kaskaskia). The Spaniards found it on the same 
side of the river seven leagues higher up. The 
country through which they passed going to it was 
all bountifully fertile and well populated ; wherever 
the eye looked, in fact, could be seen no less than 
two or three little villages of from fifteen to forty 
cabins. The chief, called Casquin also, a handsome 
warrior about fifty years of age, with a large follow- 
ing of warriors, met the army on the road and 
escorted it to his village. The Adelantado, now 
anxiously careful to avoid any infractions of peace, 
accepted lodgings only for himself and officers in it, 
quartering the army in a grove near by, where the 
men were most comfortable, for it was now May, 
and beginning to be very warm. 

Every day of the stay in Casquin, the Spaniards 
and Indians grew better pleased with one another ; 
and one morning the chief and several of his war- 
riors presented themselves before the Adelantado, 
and all bowing with the deepest reverence, Cas- 
quin spoke : " My lord, as you have the advantage 
over us in force and arms, so we believe you have 
the advantage over us in gods. These that you see 
here are the best warriors of my nation ; and I, with 



2o6 Hernando de Soto 

them, beg you to pray your gods to send us rain, 
for our cornfields need water sadly." The Ade- 
lantado answered piously, that, although he and 
all of his army were sinners, they would pray to 
their Lord God to show his favour as the Indians 
asked ; and at once, in the presence of the chief, 
sending for Master Francisco, a Genoese, and a 
great master in carpentry and boat building, he com- 
manded him straightway to make a cross out of the 
tallest and finest pine tree to be found in all the 
surrounding forest. And such was the tree to which 
the Indians guided the builder, and which the Span- 
iards cut down ; for after clearing and stripping it, one 
hundred men could not raise it from the ground ; 
and the cross that Master Francisco made of it was 
surely a grand one and proportioned in all perfec- 
tion. It was carried to the top of a tall artificial 
mound raised on the bank of the river as a watch- 
tower, and there it was set up. 

A solemn procession was then ordered for the next 
day ; and it was worthy the cross. All the army 
took part in it, except a squadron of cavalry and 
infantry stationed on guard ; more than a thousand 
men there were, believers and unbelievers, the chief 
walking by the side of the Adelantado, the warriors 
by the side of the cavaliers. The priests and friars 
went first, chanting the litany, to which all the sol- 
diers chanted the responses. With slow steps they 
advanced to the mound, ascended it, and falling on 
their knees repeated two or three prayers. Then, 
two by two rising, they went to the cross, kneeled 



The Great River 207 

at its foot, adored and kissed it — the priests first, 
the Adelantado and the chief following, then the 
cavaliers and warriors, then the common soldiers and 
the other Indians, who did exactly what they saw the 
Spaniards do. On the opposite bank of the river, the 
Spaniards could see a great mass of people standing, 
watching, stretching and waving their arms, clasping 
their hands, raising their eyes too, praying as they 
saw the Christians were praying, and from both sides 
of the river rose the wailing of the Indian women 
and children. The Spaniards were much affected by 
the sight; the colossal cross, extending its wide arms 
over a multitude praying out of their dimness and 
ignorance to a God they knew not, seemed to them 
a sign to their church such as the rainbow was to 
the faithful after the Deluge. The procession re- 
turned in the same order to the village, all chanting 
the Te Deum. And that very night, a little before 
midnight, it began to rain ; and the rain lasted two 
whole days, to the great joy of the Indians. Some 
days later the chief and his warriors came again, 
bowing reverently before the Adelantado, presenting 
now two blind men, and praying him to heal their 
eyes ; and the blind ones also raising their voices, 
begged earnestly and loudly for sight. But this 
time only a long theological explanation of the 
Christian religion by the Adelantado was vouchsafed 
them. 

When the Adelantado gave orders for the army 
to prepare to take up its march upon Capaha, Cas- 
quin insisted upon accompanying it with a great 



2o8 Hernando de Soto 

train of his people to carry the provisions and clear 
the road, and to fetch wood and water, and gather 
grass and green food for the horses ; for the army, 
he said, would not only have to pass through an ex- 
tensive neutral forest, but also have to cross a lake 
over which a bridge would be needed, and which his 
men could make. The Spaniards did not find out 
until later that the Casquins were at war, as their 
fathers, forefathers, and ancestors far back had been, 
with the neighbouring province of Capaha,^ and that 
the chief of Capaha, a noted warrior, had so over- 
awed and subdued the people of Casquin that they 
dared not take up arms for any purpose for fear of 
offending him, and thus they had been driven into 
the shame of never going outside of their boundaries. 
But now Casquin, the chief, saw a fine opportunity, 
under the protection of a foreign power, to avenge 
himself for all past injuries. So, in addition to the 
pack bearers, who carried their bows and arrows as 
well as their packs, he collected a great band of war- 
riors armed to the teeth ; and with great pomp and 
ceremony he put himself at the head of these to go 
in advance, he said, to clear the road and prepare 
the camp for the Spaniards. The Adelantado pru- 
dently kept his army well behind them, and as the 
two armies travelled during the day, so they camped 
at night with a safe distance intervening. 

At the end of three days the army came to a 
swamp — a very ugly one it was, as the Casquin 
chief had said, with a great lake in the centre. The 

1 The Kappas or guapavv of modern accounts. 



The Great River 209 

foot-soldiers and pack bearers crossed on the bridge 
that the Indians made, while the cavaliers swam 
their horses over. As the swamp was the dividing 
line between the territory of Capaha and Casquin, 
that night the Casquin warriors camped for the first 
time in their lives in their enemy's country. The 
village of Capaha lay within easy reach. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



CAPAHA 



CAPAHA, the chief, was looking out from the 
porch of his cabin in the early dawn. His 
village, built on a mound — a hill in height 
and size — rose finely above the land. Along three 
sides of it ran a deep moat or ditch wide enough for 
two canoes abreast and filled with water which came 
and went through a channel dug by hand, extend- 
ing to the Mississippi, three leagues away. On its 
fourth side, the mound was protected by a strong 
palisade, whose timbers were driven so close into 
the earth that they overlapped one another. As 
the chief, securely confident, as he well might be, 
looked about him in the brightening light, he saw 
gliding through the forest the dusky figures of his 
enemies, — the Casquins were upon him. He had 
but time before they broke from the forest to give 
the alarm and jump into a canoe and paddle as fast 
as he could through the canal. Such of his warriors 
as had canoes followed him, others fled into the 
woods. 

The Casquins, finding no defence attempted, 
stopped in their rush, and crept into the village 



Capaha 211 

slowly and cautiously, suspecting an ambush or 
stratagem ; although they had the Spaniards behind 
them, they had been too often whipped by the Ca- 
pahas not to fear them still. This delay gave some 
of the women and children time to escape; but many 
were unfortunate enough to be caught in the village ; 
for when the Casquins had convinced themselves 
that there were indeed none to oppose, then they gave 
themselves up to the sweets of revenge for which 
they had lusted for generations. They killed and 
scalped ; they destroyed, sacked, and plundered the 
chief's house with especial glee and delight ; they 
went to the temple of the village, the sacred burial- 
place of the father, grandfather, and ancestors of Ca- 
paha, leaping and calling to one another so that all 
might enjoy the triumph ; and knowing how much 
Capaha, proud and haughty as he was, would feel the 
desecration and sacrilege, they committed in the tem- 
ple all the outrages and insults they could think of. 
They robbed it of everything it held in the way of 
treasures and ornaments, of spoil and trophy, acquired 
mostly through past victories over the Casquins ; 
tiicy threw the burial-chests upon the earth, broke 
them asunder, scattered the bones, and not even 
content with that, they trampled upon them with 
all kinds of revilement and contempt. They took 
down the heads of the Casquins which the men of 
Capaha had stuck on poles at the door, and replaced 
them with heads cut off fresh from the people of 
Capaha. In short, there was no form of vengeance 
they could think of that they did not wreak upon 



212 Hernando de Soto 

their enemies, except burning the village ; that they 
did not dare for fear of the Spaniards. 

The Spaniards had not yet come up, and the 
Casquins, camping and marching well ahead of the 
army, were able to accomplish all this before they 
arrived. When the Adelantado came in sight of 
the village and heard what had taken place, and that 
the chief had fled, he at once ordered Casquin to stop 
the deviltries of his men, and he sent messengers after 
Capaha with offers of peace and friendship. But 
Capaha would not receive them. On the contrary, 
he made his way to an island he possessed in the 
Mississippi, summoning his warriors far and near 
to him, and the messengers found him busy fortify- 
ing it. When this was told the Adelantado, he de- 
termined to forestall attack by attacking; and he 
commanded Indians and Spaniards to prepare at 
once for an expedition against the island. Casquin, 
seeing before him now nothing less than the com- 
plete destruction of the Capahas, threw himself with 
all energy into the preparations for it. He sent in 
all haste to his village to fetch canoes up the Mis- 
sissippi to a landing-place opposite the island, and 
he at once started off himself with his warriors to 
meet them there, ravaging, wasting, and destroying 
as he went, and setting free his people captured of 
yore by the Capahas, wherever he found them work- 
ing in the cornfields — slaves, with the tendons of 
one foot cut to lame them. 

When De Soto with his men arrived at the 
landing-place, he found seventy canoes awaiting 



Capaha 213 

him. He found also that Capaha's island was an 
impassable growth of cane-brake and thicket, and 
that the chief had fortified it from end to end by 
palisades behind which he stood ready and waiting 
with his best tried warriors, the very flower of his 
fine tribe. The attack was immediately begun, De 
Soto setting out in the lead with two hundred of 
his men, Casquin and his men following in the rest 
of the flotilla. 

In one of the foremost Spanish canoes crossing 
the river was a handsome young fellow, Francisco 
Sebastian, who, overflowing with gayety and good 
spirits, was always the life of any party he hap- 
pened to be in ; and now as ever, always talking, he 
was entertaining his comrades and keeping them in 
a laugh over his drolleries. " The devil himself it 
was," he was saying, "and no one else, that brought 
me into this scrape of a conquest. For God, He 
dropped me into a good enough country, I can tell 
you, — Italy, where, by the polite custom of lan- 
guage, I was ' My-lorded,' and bowed down to, and 
smiled upon as if I were a real lord with vassals 
under me; and you, rude boors that you are, you 
never think of using anything else but ' thou ' to 
me and treat me like one of yourselves. There, 
like the beautiful people they are, they feasted me, 
and succoured me in my wants, as if I were every 
young girl's sweetheart, every old woman's son. 
That was in peace. In war, it was still finer; for, 
if I happened to kill a man, — Turk, Moor, or 
Frenchman, — I had him, I could strip him of 



214 Hernando de Soto 

his armour, his clothes, his horse, and so he was 
always worth something to me. Here in this devil's 
own country, what have I got to fight? Naked, 
indecent creatures, who go skipping and hopping 
and dancing and capering before and around me, 
always ten paces off, shooting their arrows at me 
with all the grace and skill in the world, as if I were 
a piece of game or a pretty target, and if by good 
luck I do catch and kill one of them, what is there 
to strip him of? A bow and some feathers. Much 
use I can make of them. But what 1 feel most of 
all is that the famous fortune-teller and astrologer, 
Lucero of Italy, once told me to be careful about 
going upon the water, because I was going to die by 
drowning and I have avoided water ever since ; and 
now just see! my ill luck has sent me to a country 
where we are never out of the water." The canoe had 
come within jumping distance of the island. Fran- 
cisco, always the first daredevil in every adventure, 
quickly got up, and putting his lance overboard and 
bracing it in the river-bed he leaped, but instead of 
reaching land, he pushed the boat back and fell into 
the water, where his armour sinking him like a stone 
to the bottom, he helplessly drowned. 

The Spaniards, attacking with their accustomed 
spirit and courage, gained the first palisade and 
drove the Indians behind the second. But there 
the Capahas were fighting with their chief; and 
knowing the peril they were in, and that, if they 
did not then and there conquer the Casquins they 
would lose all the honour and glory of their past 



Capaha 2 i 5 

victories, and burning also with shame at having 
fled from the Casquins, they fought with such 
might that they held the Spaniards at bay, and 
neither they nor their Indian allies advanced a step. 
When they saw this, the men of Capaha could not 
restrain themselves, but in fierce exultation they 
called out to the Casquin men : " Come on, cowards, 
come on ! and take us ; you have taken our village, 
come and take us. But think of the time when 
these strangers go away and leave you to us ! Then 
we will show you ! " These words were enough for 
the Casquin men : whipped and cowed people that 
they were, they not only stopped fighting, but, 
losing all courage, turned their backs and fled to 
their canoes without any respect whatever to their 
chief or to the Spaniards and De Soto, who 
shouted after them not to abandon their friends. 
Throwing themselves into their canoes, they pushed 
away into the stream and made for the opposite 
bank. The Spaniards, left to face the overwhelming 
numbers of the Indians, were themselves forced to 
retreat towards 'the canoes, the Indians pressing 
more and more fiercely upon them. Their peril 
was desperate. But the Capaha chief by a brilliant 
stratagem changed all. Throwing himself before 
his warriors, in a loud voice he commanded them 
not to injure the Christians, but to let them go free. 
And well it was for the Spaniards, for otherwise the 
two hundred of them would have been all slaughtered. 
Early the next morning, Capaha sent messengers 
to the Spanish camp offering peace and friendship, 



2i6 Hernando de Soto 

and praying De Soto not to allow his enemies 
to work any more damage to his lands ; praying, 
also, that the Spanish general would return to the 
village to protect it, promising to visit him person- 
ally on the morrow. The Adelantado, grateful for 
the magnanimity of the day before, answered that 
Capaha could come whenever he chose ; that he 
would always be well received by the Spaniards, 
and that no further damage should be done in his 
lands. Public proclamation was made that neither 
Indians nor Spaniards should dare commit any more 
injury whatever in that province, and the Casquin 
warriors and pack bearers were ordered to take 
themselves without delay back into their own terri- 
tory. This embassy of his enemy did not please 
Casquin at all, nor the answer of the Adelantado, 
for he saw that it might possibly come to pass that 
Capaha, with the favour and assistance of the Span- 
iards, would turn and destroy him and his people. 
He became very uneasy and would not leave the 
Adelantado a moment ; he returned to the village 
with him and begged to stay on longer with the 
Spaniards. He and a few of his warriors were 
allowed to remain. 

The next day Capaha came to the village accom- 
panied by a hundred splendid-looking warriors in 
their handsomest feathers and skin mantles. Before 
he presented himself to the Adelantado, he went 
into his temple, and looking upon the ruin it had 
suffered, gathered up with his own hands from 
the floor the bones and remains of his ancestors, 



Capaha 217 

and placed them in the chests. He then went to 
his house and saw what had been done there. Then 
he proceeded to the quarters of the Adelantado, who 
received him with great compHments and distinction. 
The chief was a young man, not more than twenty- 
six years of age, cahn and self-possessed, with the 
manners and dignity of middle age. He answered 
the questions put to him by the Adelantado and the 
officers with great courtesy, patiently waiting until 
one after the other had finished. When he saw 
that there was nothing more for him to answer, he 
turned towards Casquin, who was standing near the 
Adelantado listening and watching, and whom he 
had pretended not to see until then. Now fixing 
him with his eyes, he addressed him : " Be content, 
Casquin, for you have enjoyed what you have never 
dreamed of nor hoped for out of your own strength, 
your revenge ; and give thanks for it to these stran- 
gers. But they will go away, and we shall be here 
as we were before. Then, Casquin, pray to the Sun 
and Moon to help you." Before Casquin could 
answer, the Adelantado, who had asked the inter- 
pretation of what Capaha was saying, interposed, and 
charged upon the two chiefs the necessity of peace, 
and enforced at least the semblance of it upon them 
both, until the hour came for dinner. 

When the Adelantado took his place at the 
head of the board, Casquin took his seat at his 
right hand — the seat that he had occupied since 
he had been with the army. Capaha remained 
standing ; and looking Casquin full in the face said : 



a 1 8 Hernando de Soto 

" You know very well that place is mine, Casquin ; 
and for many reasons, the principal of which is that 
my blood is more illustrious, my chieftainship more 
ancient, and my territory larger than yours, and for 
any one of these three reasons you should not take 
it, because, in virtue of every one of them, it belongs 
to me." 

The Adelantado, seeing that something new was 
happening, asked the interpreters again what Capaha 
was saying ; and being told, he spoke to him : 
" Even if all you have said be true, it is only just 
that the years of Casquin should be respected, and 
that you, who are a youth, should honour age by 
yielding him the superior place ; it is the natural 
obligation of the young to revere the old, and by 
doing so they honour themselves." 

" Sir," Capaha replied, " if I had Casquin in my 
house as guest, either with white hairs or without, 
I should give him the first place at my meals, and 
would do him all the honour, besides, that I could ; 
but as we are eating with strangers, it does not seem 
just to yield my place, for it has come to me from 
my forefathers, and if I should do so, my people 
and my warriors would hold it ill of me. If you 
wish me to eat with you, you must give me the 
place at your right hand which belongs to me, other- 
wise I shall go and eat with my warriors ; this would 
be more honourable for me and more satisfactory to 
them than for me to be abased below the station in 
which my forefathers left me." 

Casquin, who on the one hand was desirous of 



Capaha 219 

placating the wrath of Capaha, and on the other, 
knew that all he said was true, now rose from his 
seat, and said to the Adelantado : " Capaha is in the 
right, and only demands what is just. I beg you 
to give him the place that belongs to him ; I shall 
seat myself on the other side, for at your table any 
seat is honourable." And crossing to the other side, 
without the slightest vexation, he seated himself 
there and began to eat. Capaha took his seat, and 
with all appearance of good feeling, also began his 
repast. 

The army remained over a month in the village, 
and finding there great quantities of skins of deer, 
bear, and wildcat, the soldiers employed their time 
in tailoring, fashioning them into clothing. The 
large furs they cut into coats, cassocks, and gowns, 
lining them with wildcat skins. The deerskins 
furnished jerkins, shirts, hose, and shoes. Some 
bucklers of buffalo skin were appropriated as breast- 
plates for the horses. Food was abundant, not only 
corn in the granaries and in the fields, but fish in 
the moat and canal ; the water was thick with them. 
The soldiers caught them with lines and nets found 
in the cabins ; the moat itself was, in fact, a weir, 
and the Spaniards feasted on the fish they caught. 
Most of the fish were new to them. As they de- 
scribed them afterwards, there was one kind they 
called " Bagres," which had great prickles, like awls, 
along the gills and on both sides, and one-third 
of its length was head ; some of them weighed a 
hundred and fifty pounds. The " barbilles " was a 



220 Hernando de Soto 

little delicate red and grey fish with a long snout ; 
and another fish as large as a hog, they said, had 
upper and lower rows of teeth. 

But the great necessity of the army now, as all 
along, although it has not been mentioned, was salt. 
The soldiers were suffering and even dying for it. 
Even when the army left the province of Coosa and 
entered Tuscaloosa, the provision of salt had begun 
to grow scarce, and shortly afterwards there was none 
at all, and then the soldiers began to sicken and to 
die of a dreadful, strange death. They would fall 
into a slow fever, and, at the end of four or five 
days, no one could endure the odour of them at 
forty or fifty paces ; they stank, says the chronicler, 
like the putrid bodies of dead cats and dogs. And 
as no one knew then what was the matter, they per- 
ished without any remedy. But even if the phy- 
sician had had medicine, the sick could not have 
profited by it, because, when the fever seized them 
they were already past help, turning from the breast 
down as green as grass. The Indians told them to 
burn certain herbs, and make a lye from the ashes, 
and to use it as they did salt upon the food ; but 
the Spaniards called this unclean, and indecent, and 
said it was beneath their quality to eat as the 
Indians did. These were the ones, the chronicler 
says tersely, who died, and, when on their death- 
beds they begged for the lye, it was too late to do 
them good. And then in their fear and horror the 
living were glad enough to make use of it. More 
than sixty men died thus during one year. 



Capaha 22 t 

The Adelantado made continual efforts among 
the Indians to find out where salt might be pro- 
cured but always in vain. By good luck here in 
the Capaha village he found some traders, who, 
among other wares, carried salt round to sell. They 
got their salt, they said, from some hills where it was 
found in plenty and of good quality ; thither 
they offered to guide the Spaniards. Two soldiers 
joyfully volunteered to go to the place. They re- 
turned at the end of eleven days, worn out with 
fatigue and hunger, having travelled for a week 
through a bare region, where they found nothing to 
eat save green plums and corn-stalks. But they 
came back loaded with rock-salt, bringing also some 
specimens of shining copper, which they took for 
gold. The country they had passed through was, 
they said, poor and sterile, and ill populated ; and 
the Indians had told them that towards the north it 
was worse still, for the climate was very cold, and 
few Indians lived there because of the great droves 
of wild beeves which destroyed the corn. 



CHAPTER XIX 



IN THE WEST 



WHEN asked which way the country was 
most inhabited, the Indians all answered, 
towards the south ; that, in the south 
was a great province and plentiful country called 
Quiguate. This, with the discouraging report of 
the salt country, decided De Soto to change his 
line of march and to return to the Casquin village, 
and from there to strike out in another direction. 

From Casquin the army marched south ; not as 
heretofore towards the north and away from the sea. 
Nine days it followed the river down its course 
through a rich and well-peopled country, and came 
to a village that in truth was the largest yet seen 
in Florida, Quiguate, the village from which the 
province and chief took their name. It was built 
in three sections or divisions, one of which alone 
sufficed to quarter the entire army. The chief and 
his people received the army with great show of 
friendliness ; but, two nights later, all disappeared, 
not a native being left in the place. Then, perhaps 
fearing damage to their cornfields, with their crops 
ready to gather, a few days afterwards they all re- 

222 



In the West 223 

turned during the night, and went their way about 
the village as if nothing had happened. 

During the halt here, one night about midnight, 
the sergeant on duty came to the Adelantado to say 
that the royal treasurer, Juan Gaytan, being called for 
his round of patrol duty had refused to go, giving as 
an excuse his position as royal treasurer. The Ade- 
lantado fell into great anger. Juan Gaytan was not 
one he was likely to forget or to forgive. And 
now with this added to past resentment, he sprang 
from his bed, and going out upon the porch of his 
quarters, which from its mound dominated the 
whole place, he called out in a voice that everybody 
in that village heard, although it was midnight : 
" What is this, soldiers and captains ? Are the 
mutineers still among you who in Mauvila plotted 
to return to Spain or to go to Mexico, that, with 
excuses of being officers of the royal exchequer, they 
refuse to take the watches that fall to them ? And 
why did you want to return to Spain ? Had you 
left there perhaps ancestral estates and titles that 
you want to get back to and enjoy ? And why did 
you wish to go to Mexico ? To show the vileness 
and littleness of your souls, that having had it in 
your power to become lords of so great and rich a 
country as this, you held it better in your pusilla- 
nimity and cowardice to abandon it, to fare through 
life living in others' houses and eating at others' 
tables, when you might have had your own house 
and your own good table to offer in hospitality to 
others ! What honour do you think it will bring 



224 Hernando de Soto 

upon you when this is known ? Shame upon you 
all ! And know that, officer of the royal exchequer 
or not officer of the royal exchequer, no one is to 
presume to excuse himself from duty, no matter 
who he be, for I shall cut off the head of the first 
man that does so. And do not deceive yourselves ; 
so long as I live, no one leaves this land until it is 
conquered and settled, for we shall conquer and 
settle it or die in the attempt. Therefore do your 
duty and leave off your pretensions, for it is not 
the time for them." These words, ringing with all 
the bitter disappointment and grief of his heart, be- 
trayed for the first time to the soldiers the cause of 
the perpetual discontent that had possessed the 
Adelantado since he left Mauvila, and that pos- 
sessed him until he died. Those that took his 
words to themselves, from that time on did what 
they were ordered to do without murmuring, for 
they knew that the Adelantado was not a man to 
trifle with, and particularly after he had declared 
himself as he had done. 

And still to the question in which direction the 
country was most inhabited, the Indians answered, 
"Towards the south, down the river, there are great 
provinces, ruled by great chiefs." Towards the 
northwest it was different, they said ; all they knew 
of there was a mountainous country called Caligoa. 
However, De Soto and his officers, consulting to- 
gether upon it, decided to go to this Caligoa, for 
perhaps, they said, the mountains would make a dif- 
ference in the soil and that gold and silver might be 



In the West 225 

found there. The Indian guides led the army- 
seven days through the thick wilderness of a forest, 
but every night it camped by some lake or pond, 
so filled with fish that the Indians killed them with 
cudgels, the slaves in their chains going into the 
water first to trouble it, so that the fish would come 
up on top. Caligoa was found upon a river at the 
foot of a hill. The Indians, who knew nothing of 
the Spaniards or their march, fled at sight of them 
in terror, leaping into the river, but the Spaniards, 
spreading out on both sides of the stream, captured 
a great many of them, and among them the chief. 
By his command, his people brought the Spaniards 
presents of deerskins and buffalo hides. 

The soil of Caligoa was so rich that the people 
every year cast out old corn to find room for the 
new, and the Spaniards found that the beans there 
were better even than those of Spain ; the pump- 
kins when roasted tasted, they said, like chestnuts. 
They were glad enough to see the Indians friendly 
and peaceable, because they had heard that the men 
of these parts poisoned their arrows, which fright- 
ened them very much, for if, they said, to their 
fierceness, courage, and skill in shooting was added 
poison, what should they do ? 

These Indians also said that further north it was 
very cold, and the country was poor and thinly in- 
habited, but there were great quantities of wild 
cattle there ; the best and most populous country 
they knew was Coyas, towards the south. The 
chief of Caligoa furnished a guide to lead the army 

Q 



226 Hernando de Soto 

to Coyas, which proved to be a five days' march dis- 
tant. The village was small, and the cabins dif- 
ferent from any yet seen, for over the frames were 
stretched skins, dyed in various colours and with 
designs drawn upon them; skins also lay on the 
floors like carpets. When De Soto saw that the 
village was only a scattering group of cabins, he 
thought that the guide had lied, for the Indians had 
all said Coyas was well inhabited, and he threatened 
the chief, charging him to tell the name of the 
town and where the army was. But he and all the 
Indians there and from other villages swore that 
the village was Coyas, and the largest in the coun- 
try, explaining that though the cabins were strag- 
gling, there were many of them and they were well 
stored with corn and filled with people. The town 
was also called Tanico,^ they said, from the river 
of that name that flowed by it. 

The soldiers walking along the bank of the river 
in the afternoon happened to see, in a little tongue 
of water, a bluish kind of sand. One of them, tak- 
ing up some, tasted it, and, finding it salty, told his 
companions that he believed they could make salt- 
petre out of it, for powder for the arquebuses. 
With this idea they gathered up a quantity of it, 
threw it into water, rubbing it with their hands; then 
straining the water, they put it to boil. The water 
evaporated, leaving a deposit of salt, yellow in colour 

1 The site of the village is generally supposed to have been at the hills of White 
River, the source of the St. Francis. The Tunica Indians were afterwards on the 
Mississippi. 



In the West 227 

but good of taste. The Adehmtado immediately 
ordered a supply of it made for the army. It was 
then he learned that the village was one of the 
places to which the Indian traders came regularly 
for salt to sell. They gathered the deposit in wide- 
mouthed baskets ending in a point, made by the 
women for the purpose ; and hanging these over an 
empty earthen pot placed on the fire, they poured 
water slowly into them, the water, dripping through 
upon the heated pot, evaporated, leaving a crust of 
salt. 

So great was the craze of the soldiers for salt that 
they could not control themselves at all, but ate it 
by the handful as if it were sugar, answering those 
who chided : " Let us have our fill of salt now, for 
we have had our fill of hunger for it long enough." 
So nine or ten did get their fill of it, for they died 
of it, dying of the surfeit as the others had died of 
the hunger. 

The army rested here a month, the horses fatten- 
ing as much as the men from the great abundance 
of corn and fodder ; and they too, in their eagerness 
for salt, drank so greedily of a hot, brackish lake 
near by that their bodies swelled from it. The 
Indians of Coyas, like all the other Indians the 
Spaniards met, knew of a better country that lay 
beyond ; the province of Tula, towards the south. 
The chief gave a guide to it, but no interpreters ; 
for his ancestors, he said, having always been at 
war, and never at peace, with the people of Tula, 
there had been no intercourse between them, and 



228 Hernando de Soto 

they did not understand one another's language. 
And so, leaving the territory called " La Sal " by 
the soldiers, the army set out for Tula. 

After four days' march through the despoblado 
that lay between the two provinces, the army halted 
about noon in a beautiful meadow which the guide 
said was a half league distant from the Tula village. 
The Adelantado rode out with an escort of horse 
to have a look at it that afternoon. They found 
it prettily situated in a meadow between two rivers. 
The inhabitants were taken completely by surprise, 
but at sight of the strangers, they gave the alarm and 
rushed out like hornets to meet them, the women 
with their weapons showing the same fierce and 
daring spirit as the men. The Spaniards charged, 
but they held firm ; and, both sides fighting steadily, 
the one retreated and the other advanced into the 
village. And there the Spaniards found about as 
much work as they could do ; for their opponents 
fought without fear of death, and, inferior though 
they were in arms and force, they would not sur- 
render, but rather let themselves be killed, the 
women as well as men. To get out of the way 
of the horses, the Indians mounted on the tops of 
their houses, and shot their arrows down upon the 
assailants, and when beaten out of one house they 
would run to another, and when pursued in front, 
would slip round and come back to attack the 
Spaniards in the rear. 

One of the cavaliers, dismounting, charged into 
a cabin and ran up the ladder into the loft, which, 



In the West 229 

as in all Indian cabins, was used as a granary. Here, 
he found five Indian women cowering in a corner. 
By signs he told them that he did not wish to 
harm them. When they saw that he was not 
followed but was alone, they dropped their fear, 
and rushing upon him like mastiffs upon a bull, and 
seizing him by his legs, arms, neck, and back, they 
bit, scratched, slapped, and pummelled him with 
might and main. He would not use his weapon 
against women, and was kicking and striking out 
with his fists, when suddenly the foot he was stand- 
ing on broke through the fiimsy floor and his leg 
sank into the opening up to the thigh ; and there he 
was caught and held while the Indian women pounced 
upon him to finish their task, and they were in a fine 
way to kill him, for the cavalier, though he saw his 
peril, would not call for help in a fight with women. 
At the moment a soldier happened to enter the room 
beneath, and, hearing the noise above, he looked up 
and saw a naked leg hanging, without shoe or hose. 
Thinking it belonged to some Indian, for the Span- 
iards had gone so long bare-legged and bare-footed 
their skin was no whiter than an Indian's, he drew 
his sword to cut it off at a blow ; but just in time a 
suspicion struck him as to what the commotion 
above meant. Calling quickly to some companions 
to follow, he ran up the steps, and there saw the 
Indian women inflicting their inglorious death upon 
the cavalier ; and the Spaniards were forced to kill 
them all, for not a woman would loose her hold 
upon him. 



230 Hernando de Soto 

It was dark before the Adelantado could sound 
the recall and return to camp. He left numbers 
of Indians killed and wounded behind him, but 
as some of his own men were pretty badly wounded, 
he was not at all satisfied with the events of the 
day, and his cavaliers owned themselves scandal- 
ized, as they called it, by the Indian women. The 
next day the army marched upon the village and, 
finding it deserted, took up quarters in it. Squad- 
rons of horsemen were sent out in all directions 
to find out if the Indians were assembling for 
an attack. They came upon a few Indians, but it 
was impossible to capture any. As soon as one 
was overpowered he would throw himself upon the 
ground with gestures of " Kill me, or leave me," 
and though jerked and pulled, he would not rise, 
but would let himself be dragged along ; and so the 
Spaniards were obliged to kill them all. In the 
village the Spaniards found a great many buffalo 
skins whose great size and thick hair had puzzled 
them before. The buffalo meat they supposed was 
beef, and looking in vain for cattle in the fields they 
could not understand where it came from. 

The Indians of Tula differed from all other 
Indians the Spaniards had ever met. As has been 
said, the others were all handsome and well feat- 
ured ; these, however, women as well as men, had 
ugly, tattooed faces, and hideously long, narrow 
heads, deformed artificially by bandages fastened 
on at birth and kept on until the ninth or tenth 
year. Their faces were tattooed even to the inside 



In the West 231 

of their lips, as the Spaniards said, to match their 
ugly hearts. 

On the fourth day after the Spaniards took up 
their quarters in the village, just before dawn, they 
were attacked in three different places at once, the 
Indians breaking into the camp so suddenly and in 
such overwhelming force and fury that some of the 
soldiers had not time to get their weapons, but were 
forced to fly for their lives, leaving what little pos- 
sessions they had to be plundered. Desperate with 
the wild outcry and confusion, and the obscurity of 
the night which prevented them from distinguishing 
friend from foe, the Spaniards called out to one 
another their battle-cry, " Our Lady and Santiago!" 
The Indians answered at once with " Tula ! Tula ! " 
and the sound of their own names seemed to act 
upon their fierce passion like the dashing of spirits 
upon fire. The sun was just rising when they 
withdrew, and the Spaniards did not attempt to pur- 
sue them. 

Instead of their usual bows and arrows, that night 
many of the Indians carried long staves, and they 
fetched such stinging blows with them that the 
Spaniards could barely get about, and they laugh- 
ingly confessed that they felt as if they had been 
bastinadoed. A few Indians were taken prisoners, 
and of these the Adelantado sent six to the chief 
with their right hands and noses cut off. 

The next day a party of Spaniards was sauntering 
over the field of the night's battle, and talking it 
over, when a trooper came riding up leading a 



232 Hernando de Soto 

horse, his horse which had run away the night be- 
fore and which he, on a horse borrowed from a 
companion, had just found and caught. As he 
stopped by the saunterers, one of them, Francisco 
de Salazar, jumped into the empty saddle to show 
off his horsemanship, of which he was inordinately 
proud ; and at the moment catching sight of an 
Indian shnking behind a bush in the field, he and 
the other trooper galloped forward towards him, while 
the rest ran on foot. The Indian, seeing them 
spreading out to surround him, and that, cut off 
on all sides, he could not escape, came out from 
his hiding-place, and himself ran to meet the first 
Spaniard on foot. He had a hatchet in his hand, his 
share of the plunder of the night before, and the 
sharpened blade shone in the sun like a jewel. 
Raising it with both hands, he dealt the Spaniard 
a blow that sent his shield in pieces to the ground 
and left his arm dangling half in two. The man, 
stunned from the force of the blow and pain, stood 
unable to speak or move. The next Spaniard now 
coming up, the warrior turned to receive him and, 
with another blow aimed as surely as the first, cut 
through shield and arm, leaving him in exactly 
the same condition as his companion. Seeing 
this, the horsemen came spurring to the rescue. 
The Indian jumped aside under a low oak and, 
while the trooper was wheeling round thrusting at 
him under the branches, he darted from under the 
tree and, springing to the left of the horse, raised his 
hatchet in both hands and gave him a cut that opened 



In the West 1^3 

him from shoulder to knee, and the horse Hke the 
footman stood unable to move a step. 

By this time another of the Spaniards, Gonzalo 
Sllvestre, came up on foot. Thinking that two 
Spaniards on foot and two horsemen were enough 
for one Indian, he had not given himself much haste. 
The Indian turned to receive him as he had done 
the others, his strength and courage rising high in 
triumph at the fine blows he had delivered. Rais- 
ing his hatchet for the fourth time in both hands, 
he would have given the same blow for the fourth 
time, if Gonzalo, quicker than the others, had not 
dodged it, and the hatchet, swerving and only graz- 
ing his shield, was carried in its impetus to the 
ground. Silvestre's sword flashed through the air 
and, slitting across forehead, face, and shoulders ot 
the warrior, cut through the raised arm, and the 
hand, which dropped, hanging by a shred of skin 
from the wrist. The Indian, seizing the hatchet in 
his one hand, sprang forward to strike the Spaniard 
in the face. Silvestre caught the blow on his shield, 
while from under it he gave a mighty cut at the In- 
dian's waist; his blade passed clean and straight 
through the body. The Indian stood for a moment, 
then fell in two pieces. Hearing of the feat, the 
Adclantado and his officers hastened into the field 
to verify it with their own eyes and to learn all the 
particulars ; and saying that it was only right that so 
wonderful an achievement should be well certified to, 
he had a notarial account of it drawn up. 

The army remained in Tula twenty days, during 



234 Hernando de Soto 

which time horsemen overran the province in all 
directions, and as it was populous, they captured 
many Indians, men and women of all ages. But 
neither promises nor threats could induce any of 
them to go along peaceably ; and when force was 
used, they would repeat the constant manoeuvre of 
throwing themselves on the earth with " Kill me or 
leave me, just as you please." So indomitable were 
they, in short, that the only way to end a fight 
with them was to kill all, which the Spaniards did, 
excepting only the women and children. But one 
Indian woman of all the province was enslaved, and 
her temper was such that, if her master or any of 
his friends said anything to her about her cooking 
or about the food, she would throw the boiling pot 
or the fire tongs, or anything else she happened to 
have, in his face, bidding them either to kill her 
or let her do as she pleased. And so they let her 
alone and suffered all she chose to put upon them, 
and even then she ran away, leaving her master 
rejoiced at being rid of such a vixen. 

The fierceness and cruelty of the Tula Indians, as 
the Spaniards learned later, made them such a terror 
to all neighbouring tribes that the mothers used the 
name, Tula, to frighten the children and make them 
stop crying ; and the Spaniards relate that, when 
they left the province, they took with them, as their 
only captive, a boy of nine or ten years. In the 
villages, through which the army passed afterwards, 
when the children of the village and those of the 
army would all collect together to play their fa- 



In the West 235 

vourite game of a battle, the Tula boy would fight 
first on one side then on the other, and on which- 
ever side he was, when he and his men charged 
with their cries of "Tula!" the other side always 
ran. 

The Adelantado, inquiring his way among the 
Indians, was still told that towards the west the 
villages were scattered, but that towards the south- 
east there were a great many towns and plenty of 
corn, and that ten days' journey from Tula there 
was a great village called Utiangue, and that not far 
from it was a great water. The winter with its 
rain and snow would soon put an end to marching, 
and as scattering villages meant scarcity of food, the 
Adelantado decided to march forthwith to Utiangue 
and winter there. The great water, he thought, 
might be an arm of the sea ; and his mind began 
to work on a new plan, or rather to take up again his 
old one. If the great water was the sea, in the spring 
he could march to the coast and make two brig- 
antines and send the one to Mexico, the other to 
Cuba, to take news of himself and his expedition 
and bring back news to him, for he began to want 
to hear from Dona Isabella, and she must be want- 
ing to hear from him, for it was three years since 
either had heard from the other. Moreover, he 
needed supplies of men and horses, for he had now 
lost all together about two hundred and fifty men 
and one hundred and fifty horses. Then, after re- 
enforcements came, he would go on with the discov- 
ery and conquest of the country towards the west ; 



•236 Hernando de Soto 

for, far as he had travelled, he had not yet come 
where Cabeza de Vaca had been and where he had 
seen the marvellous wealth, the secret of which he 
was afraid to divulge. 

The army was eleven days in marching through 
the territory of the fierce Tulas. The population 
was scant as to numbers, but great in daring and 
audacity. They harassed the Spaniards every mile 
of their march, when there were no trees or shrubs 
for an ambush, lying flat upon the ground and cover- 
ing themselves with grass, then rising like a flight 
of locusts, whirring off volleys of arrows, and making 
away at full speed. The horse, it is true, pursued 
and lanced them at their own good pleasure, but 
a mile further on there they were again, repeating 
their manoeuvre, killing none but wounding many. 

The army passed at last into the province of 
Utiangue, and arrived at the great village about the 
middle of October. As it was abandoned, they took 
possession without trouble. The Indians here were 
better looking than those of Tula ; they did not 
tattoo their faces nor deform their heads, but they 
were hardly less fierce. They would accept no mes- 
sages of peace, and their attitude was such that the 
first measure of the Adelantado upon entering the 
village was to strengthen its walls. Corn enough 
for the winter was collected from the villages round 
about, and a great provision of wood was laid in, 
and nuts, dried grapes, and pumpkins. In the fields 
were vast quantities of rabbits, which the Indians 
taught the Spaniards to catch in traps, and later on, 



In the West 237 

the Spaniards and Indians got up great deer hunts 
together, which kept their larders well supplied with 
venison. It snowed heavily at times, and for a 
month and a half the men could not get out of 
the village except by a pathway made by walk- 
ing the horses to and fro through the snow. To 
keep up discipline, the Adelantado had the alarm 
given from time to time, especially when he saw 
slackness or carelessness among the men. Alto- 
gether it was by far the best winter that the Span- 
iards had passed in Florida, and they themselves 
acknowledged that, with their good supplies of 
food and fire, they would not in the houses of their 
fathers at home have fared better, nor even as well. 
The only demonstration from the Indians was a 
constant visiting or sending of pretended messen- 
gers to spy in the camp, but nothing came of it. 

But Juan Ortiz died during the winter, to the 
great grief of all ; for all loved him for the vicissi- 
tudes he had passed through, and on account of 
them each one hoped for Juan's return to his coun- 
try more ardently than for his own. His loss was 
an irreparable one to the Adelantado. Pedro, the 
boy from Cofachiqui, replaced him as interpreter ; 
but what Juan could extract from an Indian in four 
words it took this boy a day to get at, and then, as 
often as not, he misunderstood so completely that 
the army would march two or three days in the 
wrong direction and have to retrace its steps. 

The Adelantado meanwhile was conning over his 
plans, for he was fixed in his mind now to return 



238 Hernando de Soto 

to the Great River, by a different road from the 
one travelled away from it, in order to see other 
parts of the land. For his army was weakening, 
men and horses wasting away day by day. And, 
says the chronicle, sorrow more and more oppressed 
the Adelantado that without any profit to himself 
or to any one else so much toil had been suffered ; 
he knew well that if he should fail or die without 
making the beginning of an establishment in the 
country and annexing it to Spain, it would be many, 
many years before there could be collected together 
for the purpose so many good soldiers, horses, arms, 
and ammunition as had been embarked in that con- 
quest. And he sorely repented now that he had not 
gone on to the port of Achuse and settled it as he 
had decided two years ago, and his idea now was to 
repair the mistake as best he could. He did not 
propose to go in search of the sea-coast, but to settle 
his army upon the bank of the Great River in the 
best and most convenient situation to be found, and 
to build there his brigantines and send them down 
the Great River to the Gulf of Mexico, whence they 
could make their way to Mexico, Cuba, or Spain, 
carrying the news of the vast country he had ex- 
plored and bringing back news to him ; for above 
all and besides all other consideration was the long- 
ing in his heart to hear from Doiia Isabella and to 
send tidings of his welfare to her. 

So as soon as spring began to make a showing, 
he drew the army out from Utiangue, and turned 
its steps towards the region of the Great River ; and 



In the West 239 

this was all the soldiers knew or cared to know about 
the line of march. For when they heard the pur- 
pose of their return, they had but one idea in their 
heads, or it might be said, feeling in their hearts, — 
to hurry on, through village after village, and prov- 
ince after province, by the longest marches they 
could make, so as to get to the river as quickly as 
possible, inake their boats, and communicate with 
Spain, the land of Christians, as they fondly called it. 

The river that flowed by Utiangue was the same^ 
that passed by Coyas, and the Indians said that it 
ended only when it met the Great River. This was 
enough ; the river became guide, and the army fol- 
lowed it along through forest and plain, by village 
after village, crossing it once, and crossing a great 
lake into which it fell with a furious current ; and 
the river grew larger and deeper as they followed it 
until it became of the size of the Guadalquiver, as it 
flowed past the largest village seen since leaving 
Utiangue. 

The advance squadron halted and waited for the 
rest of the army to come up. A large force of war- 
riors drew up in front of the village, while women 
and children hurried over the river in boats and 
rafts, and when the army arrived they themselves 
jumped into the river and swam across without fir- 
ing an arrow. The Spaniards took a few prisoners. 
(Questioned, they said their village was named Anilco, 
and they knew of no other village below them on 
the river but Guachoya, and on the other side of 

1 Red River or some of its affluents. 



240 Hernando de Soto 

the Great River, Quigaltanqui. Messengers were 
sent with offers of peace to the chief of Anilco. But 
he, not deigning even to speak with the messengers, 
haughtily, and as if he were dumb, made signs with 
his hands for them to leave his presence. The Ade- 
lantado decided not to tarry to enforce compulsion, 
but to push on to Guachoya. He sent some of his 
men down the river in boats, while he with the 
remainder crossed to the other bank, and marched 
on by land. 

Four days later, on a Sunday, the village of 
Guachoya came in sight, and a crossbow-shot away 
from it rolled the majestic current of the Great 
River. 



CHAPTER XX 

DEATH AND BURIAL OF THE ADELANTADO 

GUACHOYA and Anilco held each other in 
such enmity and hatred, and were carrying 
on such a bitter war, that not a word of 
warning had come to the people of Guachoya about 
the Spaniards, until some of the Guachoya warriors 
paddling up the river in their canoes caught sight 
of them marching forward. Returning in all haste 
to their village, the warriors gave the alarm. The 
chief and his people did not think of defence, but 
throwing themselves with whatever they could carry 
into their canoes, the whole population, men, women, 
and children, fled to the other side of the Mississippi. 
The village was a double one, equally divided 
between the two mounds upon which it was built. 
The Spaniards entered and took possession ; and 
the cabins were so large and so well stored with 
corn, beans, and dried vegetables and fruit that they 
said it was as if the place had been especially built 
and supplied by Providence for their ease and com- 
fort. 

It was not long before Guachoya,^ the chief, heard 

1 Here as elsewhere in Florida the Spaniards always designated the chief by the 
name of his village, or the village by the name of the chief. 

R 241 



242 Hernando de Soto 

all that had taken place in the Anilco village, and 
how the chief there had rejected the Spanish general's 
offer of peace and disdained his friendship, and he 
saw, astute politician that he was and filled with sub- 
tleties, that an opportunity for revenge had come 
ready-made to his hands. He sent at once offers 
of his friendship and service to the Spaniards, beg- 
ging their pardon for not having waited to receive 
them in his village, and promising to come in per- 
son and pay his respects. A few days later he came 
with a large band of his warriors in their gala cos- 
tumes of feathers and skin mantles, and carrying 
superb bows and quivers. The Adelantado, sitting 
on his throne-chair with his row of interpreters stand- 
ing like a body-guard behind him, received them in 
the great room of the chief's own cabin. Guachoya's 
warriors, as they filed in, ranged themselves along the 
sides of the room. While the interview was going 
on Guachoya sneezed loudly ; instantly all the war- 
riors, bowing their heads, opening and closing their 
arms, exclaimed, " The Sun guard you, the Sun be 
with you, the Sun shine upon you, the Sun prosper 
you, the Sun defend you, save you," and the like, the 
words speeding in a gentle murmur down the line. 
The Adelantado looked round in amazement, then 
smiling at his officers, "You see," he said, "all the 
world is alike!" The chief remained in the village 
in a cabin that the Adelantado caused to be vacated 
for him, his warriors going away at sunset and 
returning at sunrise. In due course of time he per- 
suaded the Adelantado to go with him on an expe- 



Death and Burial of the Adelantado 243 

dition against Anilco, proposing to send the bulk of 
his warriors by the river, while he and the Spanish 
force marched by land. The Adelantado, if he could 
not get help out of Anilco for the building of the 
brigantines, wanted at least security from any fear of 
him while awaiting at Guachoya the return of the 
brigantines from their voyage ; so he lent himself 
to Guachoya's schemes. 

The expedition started, one part by river, the 
other by land, and all arrived at the meeting-place 
on the river bank two leagues below the village, 
where they camped that night. By daylight 
they were in march towards the doomed village. 
An Anilco Indian saw them and ran amain to 
give warning. But the country was flat and 
open ; and before the village, taken completely 
by surprise, could rally, the Spanish horsemen 
were upon it. The chief was absent, and no one 
seemed in command. The people ran hither and 
thither in confusion, — the women and children 
shrieking. 

Carried away by mere excitement, the Spanish 
horsemen rushed in and fought as if the harm- 
less people had been their bitter enemies. The 
Guachoya warriors at their heels reaped the fruit 
of the carnage with an atrocity even beyond that of 
the Casquins ; for they killed even the old women, 
first dragging off the little clothing they wore, and 
shooting them down as they ran through the vil- 
lage in their withered nakedness ; and the infants 
they would throw by one leg up into the air, and 



244 Hernando de Soto 

shoot them full of arrows before they could fall to 
the earth. 

The Adelantado, whose worst intention had been 
to frighten the chief into a peace and not by a 
bloody punishment to force him into war, was 
greatly incensed when he came up and saw the riot 
of passion and cruelty. He sternly ordered the re- 
call to be sounded at once, and turned away with his 
men, after having a proclamation cried that no one 
under penalty of death should set fire to the village 
or injure it further ; and, that the Guachoya chief 
and his men should not excuse themselves with 
ignorance, the proclamation was translated and cried 
in their own language. But the Adelantado had not 
marched his army a quarter of a league away when, 
looking back, he saw smoke arising from the village 
and the houses bursting into flames. The Guachoya 
Indians, incapable of sparing the village of their 
enemies, and forbidden to burn it openly, had hid- 
den coals of fire in the thatchings of straw ; and as 
the straw in the summer heat had become as dry as 
tinder a mere breath of wind was enough to make 
it kindle. The Adelantado wanted to return to the 
rescue of the place; but seeing numbers of Indians 
running out from places of concealment to put out 
the fire he left it to them, and proceeded upon his 
road to Guachoya, in great anger, but concealing it, 
so as not to lose the friends he had for the sake of 
those he could not obtain. 

Once more in the village and established in his 
quarters, he left all other cares to his camp officers 



Death and Burial of the Adelantado 245 

to take upon himself the building of the boats. For 
this he thought and planned day and night. At once 
he put men to work cutting the necessary timbers, 
and in the forest he found an abundance of the best. 
He collected together all the cordage and ropes in 
the army and in the village, and anything else that 
could serve for cordage from the villages around. 
He sent out Indians to fetch him all the pine gum 
and gum of other trees they could find to make 
pitch of; he had forges set up, and began the work 
of making nails and fastenings out of what metal 
they had, and repairing what nails had been used in 
the other boats. In his mind he had already se- 
lected the officers and soldiers, loyal friends whom 
he could trust, to take the brigantines to their des- 
tination, and to -bring back supplies. 

When the Guachoya chief was questioned about 
the sea, he answered that he knew nothing of it, 
nor of any villages down the river on his side. But 
on the other bank, he said, there were great prov- 
inces and villages. Thinking that the chief might 
be lying, to get the army out of his village, the 
Adelantado sent Juan d'Aiiasco down the river on 
a reconnoissance to see what habitations were along 
it, and if there were any signs of the sea. D'Anasco 
was gone eight days, and on his return said that 
in all that time he had not been able to go above 
fourteen or fifteen leagues, because of the streams 
running in and out the river, and the canebrakes 
and thickets along the bank, and that he had found 
no village, nor sign of village. This was discourag- 



246 Hernando de Soto 

ing news, for with the Anilcoes at enmity, and no 
other villages to draw supplies from, the Ade- 
lantado did not know what he should do for food, 
and already it was running short. He sent Juan 
d'Anasco to reconnoitre the other side of the river. 
As Guachoya had said, it was well populated, and 
nearly opposite the Spaniards was a large village of 
some fifteen hundred houses, the village of Qui- 
galtanqui.^ The Adelantado made up his mind 
that instead of summering at Guachoya he would, as 
soon as his vessels were built and despatched, cross 
the river and take up his quarters in Ouigaltanqui. 
With presents and a grand message, he sent an In- 
dian to the chief, telling him that the Spaniards 
were the sons of the Sun, and that along all the 
way they had come through the country the natives 
had served and obeyed them, and that Quigaltanqui, 
therefore, should do the same and come to pay his 
respects to them, bringing with him, as tokens of his 
friendship and esteem, presents of those things that 
they most valued. 

^uigaltanqui's answer to this was : If the Span- 
iards are the children of the Sun, let them dry up 
the river, and then he would believe them. As for 
coming to them, he was wont to come to none ; 
rather all those of whom he knew in the country 
came to him and served and obeyed and paid trib- 
ute to him, either willingly or from force. If the 
Spaniards wished to come to him in peace, he 

' i2uig,iltanqui seems, beyond reasonable doubt, to represent what was known 
later as the great Natchez village and people. 



Death and Burial of the Adelantado 247 

would willingly await them where he was; if in war, 
he would await them none the less willingly, and 
would not shrink one step backward. 

It went hard with the Adelantado not to be able 
to cross the river at once and meet Quigaltanqui, 
and see, as he said, if he could not abate some of 
his pride ; but he could not. The river was rising 
and coming down from above with furious current, 
and the population on the other side of the river 
was thick, while his own force was so weakened that 
he had to fight now rather with his wits than his 
power; and lastly, he himself, ailing for a long time, 
was ill, and in fact, when Quigaltanqui's answer 
came, had betaken himself to bed, " evil " handed 
with fever, as his chronicler puts it. And in addi- 
tion to all this, and to complete his measure of 
anxiety and vexation, he was very doubtful about 
the loyalty of Guachoya. The village was con- 
stantly filling with Indians, who came under pretext 
of bringing the Spaniards fish, and every day the 
chief was giving mysterious intimations that Quigal- 
tanqui was coming to attack the village. Although 
the Adelantado suspected it to" be a lie to drive him 
away, he had to keep prepared and ready for attack. 
And as the walls had great gaps through which the 
Indians were in the habit of passing in and out, and 
to mend them would betray apprehension, horse- 
men were stationed the length of them, and all night 
and all day they kept up their rounds, two and two, 
visiting the sentinels on their outposts and the cross- 
bowmen on guard over the canoes in the river. 



248 Hernando de Soto 

The fever never left the Adelantado, but rose 
steadily, until it reached such a height that he knew 
his illness was to the death, and so at once, as a 
soldier and a Christian, he began to prepare himself 
for it. He drew up his last will and testament, 
which, for want of sufficient paper, was written 
almost in cipher ; and he confessed his sins. Then 
he called for the royal officers, the captains and cav- 
aliers, and the principal men of his army. When 
they had come, and had placed themselves around 
his bed, he told them, as one of them afterwards 
wrote, that now he was going to give an account 
in the presence of God of all his past life ; and, 
since it pleased Him to take him, and since the 
time was indeed come for his death, he. His most 
unworthy servant, did yield Him many thanks 
therefor. And he desired all his friends, present 
and absent, to whom he confessed himself to be 
much beholcien for their love and loyalty and sin- 
gular virtues, which he had well tried in the travails 
they had suffered together, and whom he had it 
always in his mind to satisfy and reward when it 
should please God to give him rest and more pros- 
perity of estate, — he desired them all to pray to 
God for him, that, in His mercy, He would forgive 
him his sins and receive him into eternal glory. 
And he asked them that they would free and quit 
him of the charge and office which he had over 
them, and that they would pardon him for any 
wrongs that they might have received from him in 
it. To avoid any dissension, which upon his death 



Death and Burial of the Adelantado 249 

might arise, upon the choice of a successor, he re- 
quested them to select a person able to govern, and 
whom all would like well. And he would thank 
them very much for so doing, for the grief that he 
felt would be somewhat assuaged, and the pain that 
he endured in leaving them in so great trouble, in a 
strange country, not even knowing where they 
were. 

Balthazar de Gallegos answered in the name of 
the rest. First of all comforting the Adelantado, 
he set before him how short the life of this world is, 
and with how many troubles and miseries it is ac- 
companied, and how God showed a singular favour 
to him who soonest left it; and many other things 
fit for such a time. As to the Adelantado's last re- 
quest, he said, although his death did justly grieve 
them much, yet must they conform themselves to 
the will of God ; and as for the captain-general to 
be chosen, he, Balthazar de Gallegos, besought him 
to name the man he thought fit, and they would 
all obey. The Adelantado at once named Luis 
de Moscoso d'Alvarado. Then the officers and 
most prominent soldiers of the army, and, after 
them, all the others by twenty and thirty came to 
him, and he swore them all to serve and obey Luis 
de Moscoso. When this was done, he took leave 
of them amid many tears from them, charging upon 
them the conversion of the natives of that country 
to the Roman Catholic faith, and the addition of it 
to the crown of Spain — the desires of his heart, 
which death alone prevented him from fulfilling. 



250 Hernando de Soto 

And he prayed them most tenderly to live in peace 
and love with one another. 

He died the next day, the twenty-first of May, 
1542, on the seventh day of his illness, his fever 
never diminishing, but increasing to the end. "And 
thus," concludes the chronicler, " departed out of 
this Hfe the valorous, chivalrous, and noble cap- 
tain, Don Hernando de Soto, Governor of Cuba, 
and Adelantado of Florida, whom fortune raised, 
as it had done so many others, only that he might 
have the higher fall. The danger of all perishing 
in that country without him was clear before their 
eyes, and they grieved that any had borne ill will to 
him, or had not held him in the esteem they ought 
to have done." — All his good quaHties and none but 
the good were remembered, for, as it must be ever, 
grief for the dead is largely the repentance of the 
living. He was, said the soldiers, the most patient 
of men ; so much so, that the greatest comfort his 
soldiers ever had, in every toil and hardship, was 
seeing his courage and endurance. He always hon- 
oured his soldiers, and though severe in punishing 
military offences he pardoned all others with ease. 
In his own person he was the bravest of the brave; 
so true was this that whenever he fought in open 
battle all had to make way for him, as if for ten 
men, for, as has been said before, ten lances chosen 
from the whole army were not worth his single one, 
and wherever the fight was hottest there was he ever 
to be found. And there was one very notable and 
memorable circumstance always related of him ; that 




Death of the Adclantado. 



Death and Burial of the Adelantado 251 

in assaults, surprises, and engagements with the 
enemy by day, he was always the first or second, 
and never the third, to get to the fight with his 
arms ; and by night, he was never the second, 
but always the first, so that it seemed to the men 
that he first armed himself and then ordered the 
alarm to be sounded. As for horsemanship, there 
was never better horseman among Spanish cavaliers 
— witness his fighting five hours standing in his 
stirrups at Mauvila, and one hour on a loose saddle 
at Chickasaw. And now, after losing in this Con- 
quest of Florida all of his fortune, more than one 
hundred thousand ducats, he lost his life in it, — 
his fame, his hope of family and the great estate that 
he was to found. 

Luis de Moscoso decided to conceal the death 
of the Adelantado from the Indians. They had 
always been made to believe that Christians were 
immortal, and that the Adelantado himself was a 
god, who could read their secrets ; for he used to 
show them a mirror, telling them that the figures 
they saw in it told him everything they did or said, 
and therefore they were afraid to attempt anything 
against him. Should they find out now that he was 
dead, Moscoso feared that they would all, even the 
friendly Indians, set upon the Spaniards and over- 
power them. As soon as the breath left the body, 
the new captain-general ordered the corpse to be 
kept hidden in the house for three days ; and to 
keep up the deception, the soldiers were bidden to 
hide their grief under gay, careless faces, and to say 



252 Hernando de Soto 

that he was getting better. In all silence and se- 
crecy, the officers made their preparations for the 
burial, seeking a place for the grave that the In- 
dians should not suspect. In an open space just 
outside the village were a number of deep, wide pits 
dug by the Indians to obtain earth for their mounds. 
One of these was suggested and selected. At dead 
of night, with sentinels posted to keep the Indians 
at a distance, the officers, cavaliers, and priests car- 
ried the dead Adelantado thither, laid him in the 
pit, and filled it with earth. The next day, to ob- 
literate traces of what they had done and still further 
to deceive the Indians, they gave out that the Ade- 
lantado was getting well ; and jumping upon their 
horses with great demonstrations of joy and fes- 
tivity, they galloped all over the plain, around the 
pits, and over the grave, upon which, on pretence of 
laying the dust, great quantities of water had been 
poured, so that the horses' hoofs trampled the 
ground into an even surface. But their precautions 
were in vain, for the Indians were seen passing and 
repassing among the pits, looking with careful atten- 
tion about them, whispering to one another, motion- 
ing with their chins, and winking their eyes in the 
direction of the grave. The Spaniards now grew 
suspicious themselves, and, uneasy and in fear, they 
decided to take the body from the place it was in and 
bury it somewhere else, in some situation not so 
easily determined, where, if the Indians searched for 
it, they would not be so sure of finding it, and where 
the search would be more difficult. For, as the 



Death and Burial of the Adelantado 2^^ 

Spaniards knew and said, if the Indians suspected 
that a body was buried there, they would dig the 
whole plain up, with their hands and never rest until 
they found it. And if they found that the body 
was that of the Adelantado, then would they wreak 
upon him, dead, what they would not dare even 
think of in his presence, living. 

Then came the inspiration to bury the Adelantado 
in the Great River itself which he had discovered ; 
there, and there alone, said the officers, would the 
body be safe from savage insult and outrage. His 
good friend, Juan d'Anasco, and four other captains 
undertook to sound for a proper place. Taking 
with them a Biscayan sailor who was clever with 
the lead, they rowed over in the evening to the 
middle of the river and, while pretending to fish, 
sounded it, and found in the channel a depth of 
nineteen fathoms. There they decided should be the 
grave. And as there were no stones in that region 
with which to weight the body and sink it to the 
bottom, they had a large oak tree felled, in the 
trunk of which was hollowed out a place the length 
of a man. The next night, with all possible se- 
crecy and precaution, the Adelantado was disin- 
terred and placed in the oak, where he lay as in a 
coffin, and the opening was carefully closed. The 
cavaliers and priests carried the trunk to a boat, and 
rowing out to midstream, and recommending the 
soul of the Adelantado to God, dropped his body 
overboard — saw it sink to the bottom of the Mis- 
sissippi — the mighty bed for the mighty sleep. 



254 Hernando de Soto 

The property of the Adelantado, cried and sold at 
auction the next day, consisted of two women slaves, 
three horses, and seven hundred hogs. Every slave 
and horse brought three thousand ducats, to be paid 
for — a long credit — at the first melting of gold or 
silver, or the first division of land in the Conquest, 
the men giving bond and sureties for the amount. 
Those who had no tangible property in Spain to 
mortgage, paid greater prices, as much as two hun- 
dred ducats for a hog, giving a lien upon what 
might be called their castles in Florida. But, says 
the chronicler, pertinently, those who had any goods 
in Spain bought with more fear and bought less. 
From that time on, most of the soldiers had swine; 
and they bred them and fed upon them, and en- 
joyed, among other gratifications, the pious one of 
being able to observe Fridays and the eve of feast 
days, which, as they had had no meat to abstain 
from, they could not do before. 

When the shock of the Adelantado's sad death 
and burial wore off, the army returned to its usual 
condition of mind and morals ; and now began to 
be heard the veering and shifting expressions that, 
through the long lapse of centuries ever separate 
and contrast post-mortem from post-sepuichram senti- 
ments. Some were glad now of the death of De 
Soto, holding it for certain, they said, that Luis de 
Moscoso, who was fond of his ease, would prefer 
quiet rest among Christians to the laborious glory 
of discovering and subduing countries. And the 
view proved correct. With the death of the Ade- 



Death and Burial of the Adelantado 255 

hmtado ended all his plans and schemes, for there 
seemed no thought of adding to the Crown of Spain 
or the Church of Rome, only of getting out of the 
country as fast as possible, which was, in truth, what 
a great number of them had been hungrily yearning 
to do ever since the disaster at Mauvila. 

The new captain-general called a council of all the 
officers, to decide whether the better way of abandon- 
ing the country would be to go down the river, or 
to march through the country to Mexico, ordering 
each one to give his opinion in writing with his 
seal upon it. The officers were of one opinion that 
the voyage by river and sea was the more danger- 
ous and hazardous, because they could not make 
ships strong enough to abide a storm, and they had 
neither master, pilot, compass, nor chart, nor kn(;w- 
ledge of how far the sea was, nor in fact any 
knowledge of it whatever, nor even whether the 
Great River flowed straight to it, or made wide 
inland turnings, or fell over great rocks, where they 
all might be wrecked. The royal treasurer, Juan 
d'Aiiasco, always in the lead of every discussion, as 
of every adventure, related how he had once seen 
a sea chart of the country, which placed New Spain 
or Mexico about four hundred leagues, he calcu- 
lated, more or less, from the region they were in 
now. Going by land he thought that, although they 
might have to make circuits round great swamps 
that they could not pass through, still by spending 
the summer in marching, and finding some well-pro- 
visioned villages in which to pass the next winter, 



256 Hernando de Soto 

they could by the summer following come to Chris- 
tian land. And on the march he suggested further 
there was always a chance still that good fortune 
might bring them to a rich country, where, as he 
expressed it, they might do themselves good. Luis 
de Moscoso wished to get out of the country in 
shorter time than that, but recognizing the impedi- 
ments of the sea voyage, he consented to do what 
seemed best for all, — to march west until they came 
to New Spain. And now, that this was decided 
upon, there began to revive in the memories of all, 
the Indian rumours, discredited before, that far out 
towards the west there was another army of Span- 
iards marching and conquering the land; and belief 
in the rumour grew now into a conviction that there 
was a Spanish army out there that came from Mexico, 
and that they would of a surety reach it.^ 

1 In truth, while De Soto was marching west from the Mississippi, Coronado 
in his search for the seven cities was marching east towards it. As Mr. Bandelier 
so strikingly remarks in " The Gilded Man ": " Had Coronado gone directly east or 
southeast, instead of in a northerly direction, he might have shaken hands with 
the discoverer of the Mississippi on the western shores of the Great River." 



CHAPTER XXI 



TOWARDS MEXICO 



WITH eagerness and alacrity and hearty una- 
nimity, the Spanish soldiers made their 
preparations, and the army left Guachoya 
fifteen days after the death of the Adelantado. 
They set their faces towards the west, resolved to 
turn aside neither to the right nor to the left, sure 
that going in a straight line would bring them out in 
Mexico. It was not a march, but in truth a flight. 
They hurried through the villages and provinces, 
as if death and destruction were at their heels, tarry- 
ing nowhere, observing only that they were not as 
well populated nor as rich in food as others seen 
in the country, caring not to learn their names, in- 
deed caring for naught about them except to get 
through them faster and faster. The first stop- 
ping-place, Chaguate, was reached in a fortnight, 
and a day or two was spent there, gathering infor- 
mation about the next stage of the journey, the 
way to Aguacay. 

The day after leaving Chaguate, a cavalier was 
discovered to be missing. A noble man and wealthy, 
he had joined the expedition, equipped with costly 
s 257 



258 Hernando de Soto 

apparel, handsome armour, and three horses, and 
in every way he had proved hhnself a gentleman, 
except in his passion for cards. It must be ex- 
plained that, although the playing-cards had been 
burned with the rest of the possessions of the sol- 
diers at Mauvila, they had been replaced by cards 
of the soldiers' own making, squares of skin, stiff 
like parchment, painted in the style of the thou- 
sand wonders, as they expressed it. It is true not as 
many packs were made as were desired, but at least 
as many as sufficed the players, who used them 
for a limited time, passing them round from one to 
another ; and as they were of skin they stood well 
the constant usage. As soon as the cavalier was 
missed, the captain-general halted the army, de- 
termined not to proceed until he found him, seiz- 
ing as hostage four warriors he had brought along 
from Chaguate. 

A rigid investigation being made, it was learned 
that the cavalier had been seen the day before, and 
that four days previous he had gambled away every- 
thing he possessed, his clothing, his arms, a fine black 
horse that remained to him, and even, in his blind 
passion, he had staked and lost a beautiful Indian 
girl of eighteen that had fallen to his lot. He had 
honourably paid all his debts except the Indian girl, 
and he told the winner that he must wait for her 
four or five days, when he would send her to him. 
He had not sent her, and she was missing also. So 
it was suspected that, in order not to give up the girl, 
and perhaps also ashamed of having squandered 



Towards Mexico 259 

away his arms, among soldiers considered a basely 
vile act, he had fled to the Indians. The suspicion 
grew into certainty when it was discovered that 
the girl was the daughter of a chief of Chaguate. 
Moscoso nevertheless ordered the four warriors to 
have the Spaniard brought back at once, threatening 
if they did not, to put them and all the Indians in 
the army to death. 

The warriors sent runners in every direction where 
they thought the cavalier might be found. They 
returned, bringing word that the cavalier was with 
the chief of Chaguate, who was feasting him with all 
possible honour, and that he said that he did not 
wish to return to his people. Moscoso, at this, 
accused the warriors of lying to him ; he was con- 
vinced, he told them, that the Spaniard had been 
killed. 

" Sir," answered the spokesman, " we are not men 
to lie to you ; and to prove the truth of our mes- 
sengers, let one of us go and bring back a token 
that will satisfy you that the Spaniard is alive; the 
other three will remain with you as a pledge of 
good faith ; and that you may be sure that the cava- 
lier is not dead, have a letter written to him asking 
him to return or answer in writing. As none of us 
know how to write, you will see that he is alive." 
This seemed reasonable, and Balthazar de Gallegos, 
who was a friend of the cavalier and from the same 
part of Spain, wrote the letter, reproaching him for 
his act, and exhorting him to return and perform 
his duty hke a hidalgo, promising that his arms 



i6q Hernando de Soto 

and horse should be restored or others given him. 
The warrior who made the offer was selected as 
messenger. He went and returned in two days, 
bringing the same letter that he had taken, with 
the name of Don Diego de Guzman written across 
it in charcoal, and a message from the chief that 
the Spaniard had come to the tribe of his own free 
will, and did not wish to return to his people, and 
he v/ould not force him. Upon this Moscoso, 
who had wasted three precious days upon the 
renegade, gave him up and went on with his 
march. 

The village of Aguacay was found deserted. 
Moscoso rested there a day. Near by was found a 
bonanza of salt, which the Spaniards picked up like 
pebbles, and not far from the next camping place, a 
small village, they found a saline lake from which 
they made salt as they had done in Coyas. 

The record of the march, as confused and irregu- 
lar as the march itself, brings the army next to a 
camp between two mountains in a thin grove of 
woods ; then, about the middle of July, to the small 
village of Pato. Beyond was Amaye, a well-peopled 
province. The province next Amaye was Naguatex.^ 

Camping on the road to Naguatex in a beauti- 
ful grove of trees, they descried a band of Indians 
watching them. The horsemen charged and made 
some prisoners. These, questioned by Moscoso, 
said that the band had been sent by the chief of 

1 Natchitoches (pronounced Nakitosh), on Red River in northern Louisiana, 
the oldest French settlement in the state. 



Towards Mexico 261 

Naguatex to spy upon the army and find out what 
kind of men were in it, and what order they kept ; 
and that the chief with some of his allies were com- 
ing that day to attack the Spaniards. At that very 
moment, two bodies of Indians were seen advancing 
upon the army from opposite directions. When 
they saw that they were discovered, they gave a 
great cry and charged upon the Spaniards, and then 
suddenly turned their backs and betook themselves 
to flight. The Spaniards pursued carelessly, leav- 
ing the camp, which was immediately attacked by 
other bands of Indians lying in ambush, and await- 
ing the result of the ruse ; these were driven ofi^ and 
also hotly pursued. A great many Indians were 
captured, and Moscoso, after cutting ofl-' the right 
hand and the nose of each one, sent them to the 
chief with the message that the Spaniards would 
soon be in his territory to do the same to him. 

The next day, the army came upon the first vil- 
lage of the Naguatex country, a scattered and strag- 
gling one. Asking about the great village of the 
chief, Moscoso was told that it lay on the other side 
of the river that ran near by. When he marched 
to the river he found Indians gathered to resist his 
crossing. Not knowing whether the stream was 
fordable, and having a good many wounded men 
and horses, he decided to halt and rest for a few 
days, while he made a reconnoissance. He pitched 
his camp a quarter of a league from the river, in a 
small wood of beautiful trees that stood on the 
banks of a small bayou, and sent horsemen up and 



262 Hernando de Soto 

down the river to look for a ford, and to find out 
what villagres were on the other side. 

The horsemen crossed the river despite the efforts 
of the Indians to oppose them, and found a great 
number of villages on the other side, well stored 
with provisions. Moscoso led his men four days 
later to the river, but found it risen to such a 
height that he could not ford it. As it had not 
rained for a month, he was much astonished, but 
the Indians told him that it often rose in that way 
without rain anywhere in the country; and then the 
Spaniards thought hopefully that it might be the 
tide of the sea that came into it. The Indians, how- 
ever, had never heard of the sea, and they said the 
rise came always from above. Moscoso returned to 
his camp and remained there a week longer, when 
the river had fallen sufficiently to permit him to 
cross. On the other side he found the Naguatex 
village ; but it was deserted. Here and in all this 
neighbourhood were found clay vessels ^ that were 
only a little different, says the chronicler, from those 
of Estremoz or Montemor in Spain. 

Moscoso camped in the field outside the village, 
and sent to the chief demanding a guide. The guide 
not coming, he sent troops to burn the village and 
capture what Indians could be found. Great stores 
of provisions were consumed, and many Indians, 
men and women, captured. The chief trifled no 
longer. He sent guides who knew the language of 

1 Recent excavations in a mound in Natcliitochcs have brought to light a speci- 
men of pottery, rarely beautiful in shape and design of ornamentation. 



Towards Mexico 263 

the country the Spaniards were to pass through. 
Three days after leaving Naguatex, the army 
entered the province of Nissone, the villages of 
which were poorly inhabited and bare of food. 
Then they came to a miserable little village called 
Locane, where an Indian was captured who said 
that the province of Nadacao was filled with large 
villages well supplied with corn. Securing a guide, 
Moscoso marched to Nadacao, and from thence to 
the next province, Socotino, passing through Ayas,^ 
where the Indians in a large band made a stout 
resistance, keeping the army fighting the best part 
of the day and wounding many horses and men. 
The people of this region told Moscoso that they 
had heard Indians talk of having seen other Span- 
iards. This cheered the hearts of the soldiers 
mightily, for they thought that it meant that they 
were close enough to New Spain for the Spaniards 
to have come from thence ; and if that were so, they 
felt that they held it in their power to get out of 
Florida as soon as they pleased. 

Reaching a depopulated neutral region, the guide 
led them along an open high road through it ; but 
after that, for three days, the road grew fainter, then 
narrowed into a path, and then ended. And for 
six days the army marched in an apparently limit- 
less jungle. Food gave out, there was no corn nor 
meat, nor anything else to eat save herbs and roots. 

1 These names arc given as spelled in the Spanish chronicles. They are easily 
recognized, by the sound, as the current ones of to-day in northwestern Louisiana and 
nortlicastern Texas. 



264 Hernando de Soto 

Luis de Moscoso summoned the guide before him, 
and, incensed at his insolent bearing and answers, 
had him tied to a tree and the dogs loosed upon 
him. When the brutes began to tear his flesh, the 
Indian implored that they be taken off, promising 
to tell the truth. The dogs were leashed again, and 
he confessed that his chief had ordered him to lead 
the Spaniards astray in the forest, and to leave 
them there to die of hunger. But he pledged him- 
self now, if his life were spared, to guide the army 
honestly out of the forest in three days, his life to 
be forfeited if he failed to keep his word. Luis 
de Moscoso and his officers were too furious at the 
desperate condition they were in, to listen to the 
man's prayers or promises. The dogs were loosed 
upon him again ; and as they were hungry they 
soon finished him. 

The Spaniards were satisfied in their vengeance, 
but they were worse off than before, for they now 
had absolutely no clue to the way out of the forest 
and were indeed lost. Confused and perplexed, 
they began at once to repent of killing the Indian, 
who, if they had been less foolish, might, as he 
promised, have extricated them. They could think 
of nothing else to do but to carry out the plans he 
had outlined ; and so giving him dead the belief 
they had refused him living, they turned to the 
west, and pushed straight on without deviating a 
hand's breadth on either side. After three days of 
marching with ever-increasing hunger tearing at 
their vitals, they saw the forest thin and the ground 



Towards Mexico 265 

rise in hills ; and at last they looked down upon an 
inhabited country. But when they came to it, they 
found that the Indians had all fled, that the soil 
was lean and sterile, and that the villages were 
only groups of miserable little hovels rather than 
cabins. Nevertheless they found fresh meat in 
them; and again they wondered where it could have 
come from, as they had never found any cattle alive ; 
and as before the Indians would not tell them. On 
account of the meat and hides found there and in 
all this region, they called it Los Vacqueros, or the 
region of the cowherd, and more than twenty days 
were they in marching through its sterile extent, 
suflTering all the time for food. The little corn 
the Indians had they had buried in the woods, 
and the famished Spaniards, worn out at the end of 
a long day's march, had to burrow and dig, hunting 
somethino- to eat. 

All through this dreadful region the Spaniards saw 
a strange thing — little crosses of wood set up on 
the tops of the cabins ; there was hardly a cabin 
without one. In their mystification they could not 
account for it until those who knew Cabeza de 
Vaca's narrative gave the explanation. These In- 
dians had heard of the miracles and cures which 
Cabeza de Vaca relates he was driven to perform 
to save his life (and by the same token, made it so 
precious and valuable to the savages as to defeat 
his purpose, for they would not then give him up 
or release him), and the fame of the cross as a 
medicine had been passed among them from hand 



266 Hernando de Soto 

to hand and from mouth to mouth, as any sovereign 
specific would be to-day. They had for this rea- 
son made crosses and put them over their houses 
to ward off disease and peril from the inmates. 
This shows, says the chronicler, how easily they 
could have been converted to Christianity. The 
Spaniards could not believe that Cabeza de Vaca 
had himself crossed that region of country, because, 
as they remembered his accounts, he had passed 
only through the regions of gold and silver and 
precious stones, — regions the secret of whose riches 
he was afraid to divulge, regions that the eyes of 
these Spaniards had never yet come to the sight of. 
At last a province called Guasco was reached, 
where was found corn enough to load all the horses 
and Indian pack bearers, and thence the army 
marched to a village called Naquisco9a, where, some 
Indians said, they had heard of Christians. The cap- 
tain-general had them forthwith tortured to extract 
more information from them, and only learned that 
they were from the village called Na^acahoz. The 
army at once set out for Na9acahoz, which it reached 
in two days. Among some women captured, there 
was one who said she had seen Christians and had 
been taken by them and had run away. Moscoso 
ordered some horsemen to take the woman to the 
place where she said she had seen the Christians, and 
to find out if there were any signs thereabouts of 
them or their horses ; but, after going three or four 
leagues, the woman said her tale was a lie, and so was 
all that the Indians had told of seeing Christians. 



Towards Mexico 267 

As the country was bare of corn, and further west 
no sign could be seen of human habitation, and in 
fact a great desert seemed opening before it, the 
army turned in its tracks and went back to Guasco. 
There the Indians told Moscoso that ten days' 
journey from there was a river called Daycao,^ near 
which they often went hunting for deer, and where 
they had seen people, but they did not know what 
villages were there. 

On again the Spaniards marched until they came 
to this river. Moscoso sent horsemen over it to 
reconnoitre the other bank ; they came upon but 
one small village, whose people at sight of them 
took to flight, leaving behind all they had, which 
was nothing, said the Spaniards, but misery and 
poverty. In all the cabins only a half a peck of 
corn was found. Two Indians were captured and 
brought to the captain-general ; but there was no 
one in the camp who could understand their lan- 
guage. 

The army was worn out with hunger and fatigue, 
and Moscoso and his officers decided to advance no 
further until they knew what lay before them. Far 
away to the west, could be seen only the outline of 
high mountains and the shading of great forests, 
which they knew meant a despoblado. Companies 
of scouts were given food and sent in different direc- 
tions. They all returned by the end of fifteen days, 
bringing almost all the same report : a sterile land 

^ The name suggests Caddodaquiou, abbreviated into Caddo, the name of a parish 
of northwestern Louisiana, traversed by Red River. 



268 Hernando de Soto 

and scant population, and the further they went the 
poorer were both population and country. That 
was what they had seen. What they heard from 
captured Indians, was still more discouraging; that 
although there were Indians in the country ahead, 
they did not live in villages nor dwell in houses nor 
plant fields ; but they were a roving people who went 
about in bands, living on wild fruits, herbs, and 
roots, and by their fishing and hunting; wander- 
ing from one quarter to the other, according to the 
proper season for game. And this was the country 
the army had to go through to reach Mexico. 



CHAPTER XXII 

BACK TO THE MISSISSIPPI 

MOSCOSO called a council of the officers and 
principal cavaliers, to discuss what had 
best be done. They decided that it was 
best to return to the Great River at Guachoya, where 
they would surely find corn, and there during the 
winter to make boats, and next summer go down the 
river to the sea, and along the sea-coast to New 
Spain. Although this seemed difficult, and of 
doubtful success, yet it was the only thing left 
them to do, for, they reasoned, by land they could 
not go further, that the country beyond the Dacayo 
River was the one mentioned by Cabeza de Vaca in 
his relation, where " the Indians live like Arabs, hav- 
ing no settled place, and feed upon tunas or roots 
of the field, and on wild beasts that they killed." 
If this were so, and the Spaniards attempted to pass 
the winter there, they could not choose but perish. 
They were already in the beginning of October, and 
it was urged if they stayed where they were any 
longer, they would not be able to return for the 
rains and snow. The decision was made public in 
the army, and orders given to prepare at once for 
the return march. 

269 



270 Hernando de Soto 

There were many among the soldiers who were 
greatly dissatisfied with the plan, for they held that 
the sea voyage, with the poor means they had for 
making boats, was as doubtful and dangerous as con- 
tinuing by land. They still hoped that even yet 
they might find a land of gold and silver before they 
reached Mexico, for, said they, Cabeza de Vaca re- 
lated, that after he had found clothes made of cotton 
wool, he saw gold and silver and stones of value. In 
Guasco, turquoise stones and mantles of cotton wool 
had been found, which the Indians by signs indicated 
came from the west ; and they reasoned that, by 
pushing on towards the west, they must of necessity 
come to where Cabeza de Vaca had been. 

Moscoso calculated that they had come about one 
hundred and fifty leagues from the Great River; and 
seeking information how, on the return, to avoid 
the despoblados passed in the advance, he learned 
that a curve to the right of the former route would 
be the shorter way back, but that it led through 
many bad places and stretches of uninhabited coun- 
try. To the left, the road would be longer, but it 
passed through an inhabited country, where plenty 
of corn was to be found and Indians for guides. 
This last route was decided upon, and the army set 
out. And now the Spaniards put what strength was 
left in their bodies into their feet, and strained by 
longer and longer marches to get over the ground 
and out of the country of Los Vacqueros, with every 
care not to irritate the Indians, so as to avoid any 
delay that might arise from fighting. 



Back to the Mississippi 271 

But the Indians were far from letting them go in 
peace; on the contrary, they seldom let them go for 
the space of an hour without an attack. By day 
they swarmed out from ambushes behind the trees 
of the forest, or if in the open country from under 
grass with which they covered themselves so cun- 
ningly that they could not be distinguished from 
the ground; jumping up under the very feet of the 
army. By night they crept into the camp like liz- 
ards, the sentinels knowing nothing until they felt 
an arrow in their backs, or their horses drop under 
them. Finally when, footsore and weary, with a 
sigh of relief, they were crossing the last stream and 
boundary line of the cursed territory to go into 
camp in the plain beyond, they had to stand a brisk, 
fresh attack from them, made with all the daring and 
spirit of new foes. The cavalier Sanjurge was fight- 
ing about the middle of the stream, when an Indian 
from a thicket behind aimed an arrow with such 
skill and sent it with such force that it went 
through his coat of mail and saddle like a spike 
driven by a sledge-hammer, and nailed Sanjurge 
fast to his horse. The frightened horse sprang 
through the water and galloped up the bank 
into the plain, rearing, plunging, and kicking to get 
rid of arrow and master too, if he could. Com- 
rades hurried to Sanjurge's assistance ; finding him 
spitted to saddle and horse, they led him as he 
was to where the camp was being pitched, and there, 
raising him as carefully as they could, and cutting 
the arrow between him and the saddle, they freed 



T'ji Hernando de Soto 

him and laid him vipon the grass, and left him 
stretched there, recommending him to the benefit 
of his own skill. 

It must be explained that among many kinds of 
skill that Sanjurge possessed, was one of curing 
wounds with rags and oil and certain words that he 
called healing words ; and during the expedition 
he had made many such cures, to the great wonder 
and admiration of the soldiers, who thought he 
had a particular gift from God for the purpose. 
But since the battle of Mauvila, when all the oil 
and cloth had been burned, Sanjurge had given up 
curing, saying his words were of no good without 
rags and oil. He himself had since been wounded 
twice, once by an arrow that had gone in at the in- 
step and come out at the ankle, from which he was 
four months in getting well ; the other time in the 
knee-joint, the head of the arrow breaking off in the 
joint. He suffered such martyrdom this time while 
the surgeon was getting the arrow-head out, was so 
exasperated at the harshness and cruelty of the 
man, and at his awkward hands, that he furiously 
told him, as the greatest insult he could think of at 
the moment, that if ever he were wounded again, he 
would not call upon him, even if he knew that he 
had to die for it. The surgeon, to satisfy his feel- 
ings, retorted that even if he knew that he could 
save Sanjurge's life, he would never again attend him. 
And now Sanjurge could not call upon the surgeon, 
and the surgeon, although he knew that Sanjurge 
was wounded, would not go to him. 



Back to the Mississippi 273 

In this dire strait, therefore, Sanjurge had to do 
the best he could for himself; so in place of oil he 
took some hog's lard and in place of cloth rags, rags 
from an old Indian mantle — for it was many a long 
day since the Spaniards had had a shirt or coat oi 
wool or linen among them ; and his remedies proved 
so efficient, that in the four days that the army 
rested in camp on account of the wounded, his wound 
healed. And so on the fifth day when starting upon 
the march, Sanjurge jumped into his saddle as well 
as ever, and to show the Spaniards that he was really 
cured, he galloped his horse along first on one side 
of the army and then on the other, calling out : 
" Kill me, Christians, kill me, for a traitor and a false 
friend to you, for not curing you, thinking that the 
value of my remedies was in the oil and wool, and 
so letting more than a hundred and fifty of you die," 

Twenty days the army travelled towards the 
south ; then, thinking that they were falling too 
much below their goal, the village of Guachoya, they 
curved again towards the north, and thus crossed 
the road they had travelled going west. Along here 
they had sore trouble to find food, for wherever they 
had passed before they had so stripped the country 
that the Indians, now, at their approach, hid all their 
corn. But the villages they had burned in Nagua- 
tex were repaired and refilled with corn, and all the 
stretch of country, as on the westward journey, was 
well populated and plentiful of food. Striking the 
river at Ayas, they crossed it and followed it down- 
wards. 



274 Hernando de Soto 

The end of November overtook them ; and the 
winter set in with heavy cold and rains and keen winds. 
Faster and faster the men trudged, more and more 
dogged in their endurance. Their march was not 
even a flight now, it was a rout. Each day, no 
matter what the weather was, a stage of distance was 
laid behind, and when they reached their camping 
place at night, covered with mud and dripping with 
water, they had to go out again and hunt for food, 
and most times found and gained it only at the 
cost of life and blood. The winter still advancing, 
heavier rains and sometimes storms of snow swelled 
the streams so that even the smallest could not be 
forded, but had to be crossed on rafts, which took 
time ; for wood had to be collected and the rafts 
made with the Indians continually harassing and 
tormenting them. 

After such days, when at night the Spaniards 
found dry ground to rest upon, they gave thanks to 
God, for most generally the earth was covered with 
water, and the cavaliers slept or rested until daylight 
on horseback, never dismounting. As for the foot- 
men, standing in mud and water to their knees, 
imagination, says the chronicler, must tell how they 
passed the night. And what with the constant wad- 
ing in water and crossing of bayous, their one gar- 
ment of skin, belted around the waist, was always 
wet ; barefooted and barelegged, no food, no sleep, 
no rest, tired, spent, it was no wonder they sickened 
and died, — cavaliers, soldiers, slaves, — more than 
one hundred good men, among them the last priest, 



Back to the Mississippi 275 

and with them eighty stout horses. Hardly any 
slaves escaped ; and as some of these had been with 
their masters, serving them faithfully and devotedly 
since their advent in the land, they were missed 
and wept for as comrades. In the haste to get on 
there was no stop for sickness or death. Most of 
the victims died on foot, while walking along, and 
the living would hardly take time to bury the dead. 
Many were left as they expired by the wayside, and 
those who were buried received hardly enough earth 
to cover them. But with all these miseries and 
afflictions the soldiers kept up their watch by day 
and night, and their fighting with the Indians, who 
were still striking at them at every step of the way. 
The river led them at last to Anilco, but there was 
no food in Anilco. The Indians had not planted 
their fields since their disaster in the spring; and 
the Spaniards, who counted upon supplying them- 
selves there, were dum founded with disappointment. 
The discontented ones did not fail to make good 
their point now, that it was bad council to have 
come back and not to have followed their fortune 
to the west. By sea, they reiterated, unless God 
worked a miracle for them, it would be impossible 
to save themselves without pilot or chart, or aught 
to make sails ; without hemp for ropes, or oakum to 
calk the boats ; without tar to pitch them, without 
nails to fasten the timbers together. And, as in 
happiness man sees ever a greater possible happi- 
ness beyond to disturb his enjoyment, and in mis- 
fortune he sees ever greater possible depths beneath 



276 Hernando de Soto 

to discourage him, these predicted that it must 
beyond peradventure happen to them as it had 
happened to Pamphilo de Narvaez. 

But the discontented ones, as the discontented 
ever do, forgot the help of God, and now, says 
the pious chronicler, it pleased Him, in His good- 
ness, to send the Indians of Anilco peacefully to 
tell them, that a two days' journey thence, near the 
Great River, lay a pair of villages which the Span- 
iards had never heard of, called Aminoya. Whether 
there was corn there, the Anilco men could not say, 
for they were at war with the men of Aminoya, but 
their country was fruitful, and they would be glad 
with the fav^our of the Spaniards to go and despoil 
it. The captain-general consenting, a body of horse 
and foot men set out at once with a party of Anilco 
warriors. In the afternoon of the second day, they 
came out of the forest into a great clearing, where 
two large villages rose in sight of one another, and 
there in front of the villages flowed the longed-for 
Great River. The gaunt, haggard, famished, sick 
Spaniards, when they saw it, wept. Word was sent 
to Moscoso, and he hurried up with the army. 



CHAPTER XXIII 



AMINOYA 




S soon as Moscoso saw the villages, he de- 
termined to capture them. Forming his 
men in battle array — and, far from being 
able to fight, the men could hardly stand — he 
commanded the trumpets to sound the charge. By 
the blessing of God, as the Spaniards tell the story, 
the Indians fled, abandoning their homes. The 
army then advanced upon the other place, and 
took it with the same facility. When the soldiers 
spread themselves through the villages, their won- 
der was that such small places could contain so 
much food — corn and grain of all kinds, vege- 
tables, grapes, plums, pumpkins ; truly they said, 
if they had intended to pass the winter there, and had 
busied themselves all summer collecting provisions, 
they could not have amassed so much. And this 
also they attributed to a particular mercy of God ; 
for, as they confessed to one another, if they had 
not found such good food and such good cabins to 
winter in, to a certainty they would have all died 
in short order, because in their wretched condi- 
tion they were unable to do anything for life or 

277 



278 Hernando de Soto 

safety. And even with their good fare and com- 
fort, more than fifty Spaniards, too exhausted to re- 
cuperate, died of past want in the midst of present 
plenty, — among them the noble Portuguese cava- 
lier, Andreas de Vasconselas, and, alas for Dona 
Leonora ! the handsome, gallant, dashing, daring 
Nuiio de Tobar. Perhaps in the next world, as 
says the chronicler, he may have gained the for- 
giveness and pardon which, despite his valour and 
knightly deeds, his devotion and loyalty, De Soto 
would never accord him in this. 

For greater convenience and security, it was de- 
cided to join the two villages together, so that the 
force might not be divided in case of emergency. 
The soldiers were at once set to dismantling one 
village and removing the timbers, thatchings, and 
provisions to the other, which was also well for- 
tified. But with all the will and energy the men 
could put into the task, so weak and exhausted 
were they, it took them twenty days to accomplish 
this. However, under good shelters, and with 
abundance of good food, the sick — and they com- 
prised nearly the whole army — began to conva- 
lesce; and the natives were so kindly disposed, 
that, although they had not made any regular peace 
with the Spaniards, they did not oppose them in 
any way, nor molest them, nor harass them even 
with false alarms during the night. 

As soon as health and strength were restored 
sufficient for work, orders were given to cut timber 
for the building of the boats. Master Francisco, 



Aminoya 279 

whom it was God's greatest mercy to have brought 
safely through all the hardships, for he was the only 
man in the army who knew how to build ships, — 
Master Francisco was made head master over all the 
workmen, in fact, over the captain-general himself. 
The timber was cut, and a Portuguese, who had once 
been a prisoner in Fez, and had learned there to use 
the long saw, now taught others, and together they 
sawed the trees into planks. Fortunately, a long 
saw had been preserved through all the marches. 
A forge was set up, and all the chains, and whatever 
bits of iron could be found in the camp, were col- 
lected to be made into nails ; the stirrups, replaced by 
stirrups of wood, were put aside to turn into anchors. 
Four or five Biscayan carpenters were still alive, and 
two men of Sardinia were found who could calk. 
The only cooper fell sick, and was at the point of 
death for a long time. But it pleased God also to 
send him his health, and, although very weak, he 
made the casks to hold the water. 

While these beginnings were being made, the 
chief of Anilco, fearing that his enemies of Gua- 
choya might again secure the help of the Span- 
iards against him, now sought to secure for himself 
their favour and protection. Not daring to trust 
himself in the hands of the strangers, he sent 
in his stead a near relation and his most noted 
warrior, the one who commanded on all his war- 
paths. This warrior came in company with twenty- 
four fine-looking warriors, followed by two hundred 
Indians to serve them in any capacity required, and 



28o Hernando de Soto 

by pack bearers loaded with presents of fruit, fish, 
and game. He gave the message from his chief, 
ending his offers of service and friendship with, 
" Sir, I do not wish you to beUeve my words, but 
the work we have come to do for you." 

Two days later came the chief of Guachoya also 
with presents, for the news had spread to his vil- 
lage that the Spaniards had returned and were in 
quarters in Aminoya. It pleased him not at all to 
see his enemy, the Anilco warrior, there before him, 
forestalling him with service, and still less to see 
him receiving from the Spaniards the compliment 
and honour due a chief. He at once entered into 
a spirited rivalry with him to gain the gratitude of 
the Spaniards ; and every week the two would go 
to their villages, returning with new and ever more 
generous presents of food and anything else that 
was needed. 

Master Francisco, calculating the size and pro- 
portions of the vessels according to the number 
of the persons to be embarked, found that six were 
necessary, and for this number he demanded ma- 
terials. In order that the rains and other inclem- 
encies of the winter might not interrupt or disturb 
the work, he commenced by building four great 
sheds, under which all the men toiled together, with- 
out any distinction or difference, each man hastening 
to do what he was most fitted for, without command. 
For, as the hope of each lay in the making of the 
boats, there could be but unanimity of mind and 
heart in all. While some sawed the logs into 



Aminoya 281 

planks, others chipped with adzes ; here some ham- 
mered iron at the forge, there some twisted fibre 
into ropes, the soldier or captain who did the most 
work at what he set about to do being, for the time, 
the man most honoured by the others. 

So they kept busy during February, March, and 
April, the Anilco warrior all the while proving him- 
self the best of friends, offering with alacrity to pro- 
vide anything that was needed to help the work 
along, collecting and bringing great quantities of 
mantles of fibre, and skin — the new ones for sails, 
the old ones to be ravelled to calk the boats — and 
cutting and bringing great lengths of vines to be 
used for ropes. Indeed, the captain-general, his 
officers and men in their gratitude looked up to 
him as to a Hernando de Soto himself; and the 
warrior deserved it, they said, for in all respects — 
appearance, figure, and virtue — he was a gentleman. 
Guachoya also helped and provided ; but he did it 
in a niggardly manner, and the soldiers said the dif- 
ference between his soul and that of the Anilco 
warrior could be seen a mile off. And from almost 
as great a distance also would be perceived his vex- 
ation and jealousy at the honour and respect paid 
by the Spaniards to one inferior to him in power 
and rank ; and his envy lay so heavy within him, 
that it allowed him neither rest nor ease. 

It would be well to recall, if, perhaps, it has been 
forgotten, that opposite the village of Guachoya, on 
the other side of the Great River, was the large and 
powerful province of Quigaltanqui, whose chief, a 



282 Hernando de Soto 

young warrior, had so audaciously braved De Soto. 
When Quigaltanqui heard that the Spaniards were 
above him, in Aminoya, making boats to go down 
the river and across the seas to their own country, 
he reasoned that, as they had seen so many and 
such fine lands in his country, they could not help 
extolling its greatness and richness ; and so they 
would excite the greed of other people to come and 
take it away from its natural chiefs and masters. 
He thought, therefore, that it would be wise to pre- 
vent this by not permitting the Spaniards to leave 
the country alive, and to intercept and kill them all 
in it. He therefore sent out messengers, summon- 
ing together all the noted warriors of his territory, 
and declared his judgment to them, and asked their 
opinion. Quigaltanqui was as much feared out- 
side his territory, as he was blindly obeyed within. 
Without hesitation the chiefs agreed with him and 
begged him to lead them against the strangers, prom- 
ising that they would serve him until death. Qui- 
galtanqui, further to insure his success, sent messages 
to the chiefs still farther away ; and, warning them 
that the danger he feared and wished to avert was 
the same for all, he exhorted them to leave off by- 
gone enmities and come together in a great league, to 
prevent the peril of strangers penetrating into their 
country and conquering their lands, and taking 
their wives and children, and making slaves of them. 
These chiefs also responded to Quigaltanqui with 
the greatest enthusiasm, lauding his judgment and 
forethought ; and from one side of the river and 



Aminoya 283 

the other they ^H swore allegiance to him, each one 
agreeing to collect with all possible secrecy and de- 
spatch as many men and canoes as he could, and 
to make all other preparations for a war. All the 
while they feigned to be friends of the Spaniards, and 
to put them off their guard, they sent messengers 
and presents to them, each chief separately, Qui- 
galtanqui, as the prime actor, sending his messen- 
gers first. 

The captain-general, at first deceived, replied 
gratefully, thanking each and saying, which was the 
truth, how much he rejoiced to be at peace and 
friendly with the Indians ; and all the Spaniards were 
indeed vastly pleased, as for some length of time 
past they had had their glut of fighting. Into this 
league, though he was bidden, the Anilco- chief not 
only refused to enter, but he commanded his war- 
rior to reveal it to the Spaniards in time to put 
them on their guard. In this manner they heard 
of it. They never could ascertain with any cer- 
tainty whether Guachoya was in the league or not. 
He at least never gave any warning about it, and 
they considered an attempt which he made about 
this time to discredit the Anilco warrior might have 
been a subtle design to prevent his being believed, 
should he ever tell the Spaniards about the league. 
For as Anilco had not consented to enter it, Gua- 
choya might well suspect him of being an enemy 
of it, and of betraying it to the Christians. One 
day, while Moscoso, his officers, Guachoya, and the 
Anilco warrior were standing together in the work- 



284 Hernando de Soto 

sheds, Guachoya, without any provocation, turning 
to the captain-general, said : " For a long time I 
have been grieved at the honour that you and your 
soldiers pay to this Anilco man, for it seems to me 
that honour should be given according to station, 
and qualities, and possessions, and in all three he 
has little or nothing. He is poor, and his father and 
grandfather were poor before him ; he is the subject 
and servant of a chief like myself, and I have war- 
riors as good as he and superior to him in birth and 
possessions. I tell you this that you may know 
whom it is you are favouring, so that you shall not 
put so much faith in his words, and may be on 
your guard." 

While Guachoya was speaking, the Anilco war- 
rior made no sign of hearing him ; on the con- 
trary, without a word, gesture, or expression of the 
face, he let him say all he wished to the end. Then 
he arose and began to speak, and as Moscoso com- 
manded the interpreters to repeat what he said, 
without suppressing a word, he spoke slowly and 
distinctly, waiting at the end of each sentence for it 
to be translated. " Guachoya, without any reason 
whatever, you have tried to insult me before the 
captain-general and his soldiers, when you should, 
on the contrary, have paid honour to me for what 
you know and what I shall tell now before you. 
You say that I am poor, and so were my father and 
grandfather. You say the truth ; but they were not 
so poor as you make out, for they always had enough 
of their own to feed themselves ; and I, through my 



Aminoya 285 

good fortune against you and other chiefs hke you, 
have gained enough and more than enough for my- 
self and my family. When you say that I am of 
base blood, you know well that you lie; for, although 
my father and grandfather were not chiefs, my great- 
grandfather and ancestors were, so that in family I 
am as good as you, and as good as any other chief 
in the land. You say that I am the subject of 
another. You say the truth ; we cannot all be chiefs. 
But it is also true that neither my chief, Anilco, nor 
his father, nor his grandfather, has ever treated me 
or mine like servants, but like kinsmen ; and we 
have never given them low service, but the highest. 
As you know, I had hardly passed my twentieth 
year when Anilco chose me for his warrior chief, 
and that for twenty years in peace or war I have 
been the first person in the tribe after Anilco. And 
I have won every battle that I fought against his 
enemies ; against your father and all his warriors, 
and against you, for I have conquered you, and capt- 
ured you and your two brothers, and all your best 
warriors — your land, and everything they and you 
possessed. If 1 had chosen then, I coulci have taken 
your lands from you and kept them for myself, for 
there was no one in the length and breadth of them 
to prevent me. But not only did I not do this, 
but instead I feasted you, and your brothers, and 
your warriors, and let you go free on your promise. 
Last year, when you broke, as you did, your promises, 
I had a mind to take you again and bring you back 
into captivity, as I shall do when the Spaniards are 



286 Hernando de Soto 

gone out of the land ; for under their favour you 
came to the village of Anilco and burned his houses, 
for which you will pay well ; that I promise you. 
But it does not beseem men to quarrel by words 
like women and children ; let us go to arms and 
prove which one of the two, by virtue of strength 
and courage, merits to be the chief over the other. 
This Great River, going down, passes through your 
territory, but on this side of your territory is the 
river that passes through my territory. Let us, 
you and me, get into a canoe, and start down the 
river together, and he who proves himself the best 
man on the way, he shall take the canoe and go 
on to his village. If you kill me, you will have 
avenged yourself like a warrior. If I kill you, then 
I shall get all the satisfaction I want for what you 
have said against me." Guachoya did not answer 
a word. Whereupon, Moscoso and his officers 
thought all the more of the Anilco warrior, and 
treated him even with more respect than before, 
and Guachoya with less. 

When the Spaniards took possession of Aminoya, 
they found in one of the cabins an old woman ; too 
old she was to fly with the rest of her people. She 
asked them what they were coming to her village 
for. They said to pass the winter there. Then 
she asked them what they expected to do with 
themselves and their horses in the high water, for 
every fourteen years the Great River rose and over- 
flowed its banks, and covered all the land, and that 
the natives took refuge from it in the tops of their 



Aminoya 287 

houses, and that year was the fourteenth year. At 
this the Spaniards laughed very much, and then, as 
they said, cast it to the winds. The month of 
March came, and the Spaniards in their eagerness 
to get out of the country were working with might 
and main, not giving themselves a moment's respite 
or rest, and the Anilco warrior was still going inces- 
santly backwards and forwards between the camp 
and his village to get what was needed. 

And, on the other side of the river, Quigaltanqui 
and his allies in their determination to prevent the 
strangers leaving the country were no whit lazier; 
each chief of them was also with might and main 
levying men and collecting canoes. All was at last 
in readiness to assault the camp and burn the boats 
and massacre the Spaniards. The critical moment 
approached, and as usual with the Indians it was 
accompanied by sinister signs, looks, and winks, and 
incautious words. The Indian women secretly told 
their masters to be on guard. At night when the 
weather was clear, the paddling of canoes could be 
heard, and a great murmuring from over the river 
as from a camping place ; and from point to point 
along the bank signal fires were lighted. 

To all of it God, says the chronicler, put an end 
by sending a most tremendous flood, — the high 
water predicted by the old Indian woman. The 
water began to rise, and rose steadily day after day, 
until its current, pouring down with terrific force 
and swiftness, filled the great hollow space between 
its banks, then rose, and rose, until it lay smooth 



288 Hernando de Soto 

and even with its banks. And then, on the eigh- 
teenth of March, Palm Sunday, while the Spaniards 
were walking in solemn procession, celebrating the 
entry of our Saviour into Jerusalem, the river 
came over its banks, and began to spread over the 
country, creeping further and further inland day by 
day and night by night. Ten days later there was 
no going about the village except in canoes or on 
horseback, and for forty days still the water rose. 

A marvellous sight it was to the Spaniards to see 
forests and fields sunk into a sea, for the water spread 
over more than twenty leagues on each side of its 
banks, and in all that extent nothing was to be seen 
but the tops of the houses and trees. The Span- 
iards made rafts, covered with green boughs, for their 
horses, and they raised the floors in their houses, 
but they were driven from these up into the lofts, 
where for two months they were cooped up. But 
they did not cease from their work ; they floored 
their dockyards, as they called their sheds, higher and 
higher, and in them kept up their various tasks, even 
to the burning of the charcoal for the forge. The 
timber for the oars of the boats was cut from the 
branches of trees standing in the water. 

As for Quigaltanqui and his gathering forces, 
when the warriors saw that an overflow was upon 
them, they had to hie away in their canoes back to 
their villages to look after their women and children 
and provisions, and to put them in places of safety. 
At the end of April, the water began to fall, but as 
slowly as it had risen, so that it was the middle of 



Aminoya 289 

May before the Spaniards could get about the vil- 
lage except by wading; and it was the end of the 
month before it returned to its bed, or, as the 
Spaniards said prettily, to its mother. 

As soon as the ground was dry enough to walk 
upon, the Indians began to collect their forces again 
upon the other bank, and the Anilco chief sent a 
warning to Moscoso that they were preparing for an 
attack on a certain day, which the Spaniards would 
know by its following four days after three presents 
of fish came, one in the morning, one at midday, 
and one in the evening. To prove the truth of 
this, Moscoso had one of the Ouigaltanqui Indians 
who came to the village secretly captured and put 
to torture, and the confession was forced that Qui- 
galtanqui and his allies would attack the camp three 
days after the different chiefs sent a great present of 
fish, one present in the morning, one at noon, and 
one in the evening. The slaves in the village were 
to steal away the lances which stood at the doors of 
cabins and set the village on fire, when the warriors 
ambushed in the forest were to rush in and make 
an end of the Spaniards. Moscoso had the man 
kept in chains, and waited. As he had said, on a 
certain day there came to the camp a great present 
of fish in the morning, another at midday, and a 
third in the afternoon. Moscoso seized the mes- 
sengers, band by band, all thirty of them; and, re- 
solved to inflict such a punishment as would terrify 
even the haughty Quigaltanqui, he had the right 
hand of each warrior cut off. The men submitted 



290 Hernando de Soto 

without a Word, and with the greatest stoicism. 
As soon as one man's hand was chopped off, 
another would step up and lay his upon the block, 
which caused great pity and compassion among the 
lookers-on. The mutilated braves were then sent 
back to their chiefs with the message that the rest 
of them might come when they would ; that the 
Spaniards wished for nothing more than to meet 
them. The appalling penalty produced the effect 
expected by Moscoso ; a pause of horror fell over 
the warlike preparations across the river. And 
now the Spaniards, knowing for a certainty that 
there would be only a short respite for them before 
retaliation, worked as never before at their last 
preparations. Advantage had been taken of the 
high water to float the boats into the river, and 
avoid the strain of launching, for the nails and fast- 
enings had been scarce in the building, and what 
there were, were not of the strongest quality. So 
for some time they had been lying at the bank 
under guard night and day. Now all hands were 
put to rigging and loading them. The boats were 
open galleys, carrying seven oars to a side, and pro- 
vided with sails of skin. As the decks were not 
covered, loose planks were laid down for the men 
to run upon to trim the sails ; the cables were of 
vines. 

Two sows and a boar apiece were given Anilco 
and Guachoya and other friendly chiefs, to breed 
from, and eighteen hogs were reserved alive in case 
of a stoppage at the mouth of the river ; the rest 



Aminoya 291 

were butchered and the meat salted ; the lard 
mixed with resin furnished tar for the outside of the 
boats. Twenty of the thirty horses that remained 
alive were tied at night to stakes and their veins cut, 
and so left to bleed to death ; and their meat, par- 
boiled, salted, and dried in the sun, was added to 
the store of food. 

The Spaniards would have had corn enough, but 
the high water had caused a famine in all the coun- 
try round, and the Indians of Aminoya, whose pro- 
visions had been captured with their villages, had 
absolutely nothing to eat, and so were dying of 
starvation. They came in flocks to the camp, ofl^er- 
ing to work as slaves, hoping that the Christians, 
having taken all they had, might bestow a few 
crumbs upon them. So weak were they they could 
hardly stand, and there was so little flesh on their 
bones that they looked like skeletons. Many died 
on the road to the village from pure hunger and 
exhaustion. Moscoso forbade with severe penalties 
the giving of corn to them, commanding all to be 
saved for the voyage ; but when the soldiers saw the 
misery of the poor wretches, and their willingness 
to work, they gave them a part of their own rations. 
When the time came for embarking, Moscoso's 
foresight was seen to be wise, for there was barely 
enough corn to serve their own needs. The horses 
and hogs were put into canoes, screened round 
with planks covered with skins as a protection 
against arrows. The canoes for the horses were 
tied two and two together, and the horses stood in 



1^1 Hernando de Soto 

them, the fore feet in one, the hind feet in the other. 
Besides these, each boat carried an empty canoe 
in tow. Two days before the start, all the Indians 
in the village were dismissed, and when they were 
gone all the slaves were set free. But some of them, 
the first captured in Florida, and brought along from 
its most distant provinces, surviving all the hard- 
ships and ill fortunes of four years, begged with 
tears not to be left behind ; for they said they 
would rather die with the Spaniards than live 
among the strangers in Aminoya, Anilco, and 
Guachoya ; so they were allowed to follow along 
still with their masters into the unknown dangers 
ahead. 

Moscoso appointed his captains, two to each boat, 
taking their oath that they would obey him until 
they came to the land of Christians. There were 
about three hundred and fifty men, and these were 
next distributed and told off in regular relays for 
rowing, no man to be exempted but the captains. 
And now there was nothing more to be done ; all 
was completed. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE FLIGHT DOWN THE RIVER 

IT was the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, the 
2d of July, 1543 — four years and one 
week since the expedition landed in Florida. 
Waiting until after sunset, the Spaniards quietly 
stepped into their boats, took their places, and 
pushed off from shore. Steering out into the cur- 
rent, they rowed down with it. They rowed all 
that night and the next day and the next night 
without stopping, speeding onward over the spot 
where lay the body of the Adelantado, passing the 
Guachoya village where he died. Canoes, in wait- 
ing there, followed them to the next bend in the 
river ; then they dropped behind and out of view, 
and the vast river was all their own again. But 
when one of the boats went ashore to a deserted 
little village, an old Indian woman left there warned 
them that the enemy were gathering, and were 
coming fast after them. 

The light of the next day brought to view a sight 
such as the Spaniards had never seen before, and 
never saw afterwards. Looking back, they saw the 
broad river, from bank to bank, covered with Qui- 

293 



294 Hernando de Soto 

galtanqui's canoes. So many were they, writes one 
chronicler, that the Spaniards could not count them, 
but only reckoned them by hundreds, — may be, 
reckoning with the imagination rather than their eyes. 
Each canoe carried from twenty to twenty-iive rowers 
to the side, with a serried file of standing warriors, 
bows in their hands, quivers at their backs, tall, slim, 
erect, immovable — all to their crests of feathers. 
The trim, light paddles, polished like ivory, glistened 
in the sunshine, say the Spaniards, like the brightest 
of lance-heads, and they sent the canoes with a ve- 
locity that a horse, galloping at full speed, would 
hardly have excelled. To keep time, the rowers, in 
unison, sang war-songs, interrupted at regular inter- 
vals with cries and insults hurled at the Christians. 
Some of the canoes were dyed inside and out, all of 
a colour — black, white, blue, red, yellow, purple, 
with the paddles to match. And the bows and 
quivers and the feathers on the warriors' heads 
were all of the same colour as the canoes, so that 
the Spaniards, describing it, said that no tournament 
or joust of cavaliers on caparisoned steeds, and 
dressed to produce an effect, could have excelled the 
brilliant beauty of these savages. And the precision 
of their movements was as wonderful and beautiful ; 
their canoes now rushing onward with the quick 
dropping words of their songs, now slowing off 
in long drawn-out cadences. 

The Spanish vessels pushed steadily onward In the 
centre of the channel, the men rowing as men row 
for life and safety. At midday the canoes were seen 



The Flight down the River 



& 



295 



to separate into three divisions, and draw over to the 
right-hand side of the river. And now, the Span- 
iards had better opportunity to admire the beauty of 
their evohitions, and the strength and skill of their 
rowers. The first division, in a long, single file, 
shouting Quigaltanqui's name, flashed forward like 
a keen, curving blade athwart the course of the 
Spaniards; and a broadside of arrows, which dark- 
ened the air as they came, fell into the boats. The 
cavaliers ranged themselves with shield and lance for 
the onset, and some of the soldiers quickly stepped 
into the canoes in tow, to defend the horses ; but the 
Indians passed onward to the other side of the river, 
and, twirling round, returned in the rear of the boats 
to take up their first position on the right bank. In 
the meantime, the canoes of the second division had 
advanced in precisely the same order, discharging 
their arrows, returning to the right bank and taking 
up their position after the first division ; and they 
had hardly crossed before the third division was 
there in front of the boats, pouring its broadsides 
of arrows upon the Spaniards, returning to their po- 
sition near the right bank, whence the first canoes 
immediately led off again, followed in due order by 
the second and third divisions. And thus they kept 
it up all day, crossing in front and discharging their 
arrows, and returning by the rear to their first posi- 
tion, giving the Spaniards not one moment's respite 
until nightfall. 

Seeing that the Indians had no idea of coming 
within reach of their swords but intended to fight 



296 Hernando de Soto 

with their arrows at a distance in the canoes, the 
Spaniards came back into the leading boats, leaving 
the horses to what protection they could get out of 
their coverings of mats and skins. During this first 
day twenty-five men were wounded in Calderon's 
vessel, which was in the rear. The soldiers not in 
armour tried to get out of the way of the arrows 
by going to the other side of the boat, and some of 
the rowers dropping their oars, the boat began to 
drift. But one of the cavaliers made a soldier take 
up an oar and steer back into the course, while he 
stood before him and guarded him with his shield, 
and so he saved the boat. The Spaniards then be- 
thought themselves of the mats that they slept in, 
which were so close and strong that no arrow could 
cut through them, and as soon as the Indians gave 
them the leisure for it they hung them along the 
sides of the boats. But the Indians, shooting their 
arrows with as deadly skill up in the air so that they 
might fall into the boats, wounded almost as many. 

So the pursuit continued for ten days — begin- 
ning at dawn, ending at sunset — with no varia- 
tion whatever in the manoeuvre. At the end of 
that time two of the horses had been killed, and few 
of the Spaniards had escaped without a wound. 
The crossbowmen did what they could, but they 
were too few in number to do much. As for the 
arquebusiers, their powder had long since been 
exhausted and their guns forged into nails. 

The Indians, seeing at last that their manoeuvres 
had only forced the Spaniards into keeping in 



The Flight down the River 297 

closer order, now pretended to withdraw, and cun- 
ningly dropped out of sight and remained a dis- 
tance up the river in hopes that their enemies, grow- 
ing careless and off their guard, the boats would 
spread out and separate from one another, thus giv- 
ing an opportunity to attack one by itself. The 
Spaniards fell into their trap before the day was out. 
Passing by a little village that looked as if it had 
been abandoned, and believing that the Indians had 
given over the chase and that the river was nearing 
the sea, Moscoso thought it would be well to lay 
in a new supply of corn. Word was passed along 
the boats for volunteers to go with Gonzalo Silvestre 
to the village. A hundred men immediately put 
out in their canoes, taking the horses to give them 
a little run, or, one chronicler says, to kill them for 
their meat. But the village was not abandoned ; 
the Indians were out in their fields. Seeing the 
Spaniards coming, they fled to the forest, sending out 
wild cries of alarm. Gonzalo Silvestre and his men, 
making all haste, landed and ran to the cabins, 
grasping up all the corn and provisions and skins 
they could pack on their shoulders. Among the 
skins was a magnificent one, which Gonzalo Silvestre 
secured for himself, of the finest marten, very long 
and wide, and doubled so as to be the same on both 
sides, ornamented on the edge with pearls hung in 
groups like tassels. 

In the midst of their looting, they heard the 
trumpets from the boats sounding a peremptory 
recall ,• Quigaltanqui's canoes were in sight, and 



298 Hernando de Soto 

coming at full speed to the rescue of the villagers. 
The Spaniards jumped into their canoes, but they 
were too hard pressed to save their horses. They 
managed to reach the vessels, but the chase was 
so close that, if the Indians on the river had been 
a hundred paces in advance, they would never have 
succeeded. The Indians, furious at their disap- 
pointment, turned for revenge upon the deserted 
horses. The intelligent animals, as if knowing 
that they were at last in the power of their bitter 
enemies, began to neigh and snort and gallop over 
the fields. The delighted Indians pursued, shoot- 
ing at them with the wildest glee until the last horse 
fell — the last of the three hundred and fifty fine 
horses that had entered upon the conquest of the 
country — the Spaniards looking on with such sor- 
row as men feel over the killing of little children. 

The canoes again dropped behind, and kept out 
of sight ; and the galleys rowing and sailing on under 
a prosperous wind with no foe in view for a day or 
two, the men again grew careless and off their guard ; 
and one of the boats, the crew not noticing it, 
dropped out of the regular order and, separating 
from the others, fell behind more than a hundred 
yards. The Indians, who were on watch, lost not a 
moment of their opportunity. From all directions 
their canoes came charging over the water towards 
the straggler with the speed and fury of wild ani- 
mals. The other six vessels lowered sails, and began 
to row back to the rescue as fast as they could. The 
distance was short, but against the current of the 



The Flight down the River 299 

river the headway was slow and difficult. When 
they reached the surrounded boat, the Indians were 
pouring over the sides, the Spaniards defending 
themselves as best they could, each man holding a 
circle at bay with his sword. But as the other boats 
came up, the Indians retreated, taking the canoes in 
tow with their cargo of live hogs. The Spaniards 
now returned to their first caution, Moscoso charg- 
ing the captains if they did not want to fall into like 
danger again, not, on any account, to separate or 
break the regular order. But what avail charges 
when a fool takes it into his head to act .'' 

Among the Spaniards was a rustic fellow, Estevan 
Anez by name, who had none of the qualities of a 
real soldier, but who, having safely passed through 
all the dangers of an expedition where so many 
brave men had perished, was puffed up with vanity, 
as if his valour had been his salvation. He was a 
great talker, and in his galley had talked himself 
into a great reputation for bravery among his com- 
panions, particularly among the young ones; and so 
one day he talked himself and five of them into 
believing that they could perform the most brilliant 
and most famous feat of arms in that discovery or 
any other — and somehow it is not hard to per- 
suade youths that they can do the most famous and 
brilliant deeds of all ages. Among these was a 
young cavalier of twenty, the son of the brave Don 
Carlos Enriques, killed in the battle of Mauvila, as 
perfect of figure and as beautiful of face, says the 
chronicler, as it was possible for a human being to be, 



300 Hernando de Soto 

and in gallantry and virtue, the worthy son of his 
father. He with the others followed Anez into the 
canoe in tow of their boat, and, casting off, they pad- 
dled away, saying they were going to speak to the 
captain-general. But as soon as they were a little 
distance from their boat, they, on the contrary, turned 
and, shouting out cries of defiance, paddled straight 
for the Indians who were keeping just in sight. 

Moscoso, seeing the senseless act, ordered the 
trumpets in all haste to sound the recall, and with 
shouts and gestures he and his officers ordered the 
canoe to return. But the more and the louder they 
called, the more obstinate and determined seemed 
the course of the canoe. Furious at the disobe- 
dience, the captain-general ordered thirty or forty 
men to go and arrest and fetch him the leader, de- 
termined to hang him as soon as he was aboard. 
It would have been better to have remitted his 
punishment to the Indians, for they knew, and 
none better, how to cure such foolishness. As 
soon as the order was heard, from every boat Span- 
iards jumped into their canoes to execute it. The 
Indians as on the first day covered the river from 
bank to bank. When they saw the canoes of the 
Spaniards coming towards them, instead of advanc- 
ing they kept their paddles going, merely to hold 
their line. Then, almost imperceptibly at first, in 
perfect unison and grace they began to back, to 
draw the canoes further away from the boats, which 
in the meantime had lowered their sails and were 
working their oars to stem the current. 



The Flight down the River 301 

Seeing themselves gaining upon the Indians, in- 
stead of suspecting something, Anez and his crew 
paddled still more fiercely towards them, calling out 
excitedly: "See, they are flying! They are flying!" 
When the first canoe of Spaniards and the three 
others coming after were near enough, the Indians 
began to spread out towards the sides, curving like 
a crescent, the centre still paddling backwards and 
leading on the Spaniards. When these were well in 
the trap, and could not get out even if they wished, 
the horns of the crescent began to curve forward ; 
then suddenly closing they charged over the water, 
striking the four canoes of Spaniards on the side 
with such impetus and force that they turned them 
over, and passing over the place where they were 
in such numbers that the Spaniards could not even 
rise to the surface. Whenever a head appeared it 
was beaten by a paddle back into the water. And 
so perished forty-eight of the fifty-two men in the 
four canoes. " And all for the act of a fool ! " 
exclaims the chronicler. 

The four who escaped owed their lives to Pedro 
Moreno, the Mestico. Although overturned into 
the water, he with his great strength and skill was 
able to recover his canoe and get into it, pulling 
after him three others, among them the brave 
soldier Nieto, who, it will be remembered, lifted up 
Juan Ortiz to his saddle and rode away with him. 
Nieto held the Indians at bay while Pedro Moreno 
paddled. But neither his strength and courage nor 
Pedro Moreno's skill and dexterity would have availed 



302 Hernando de Soto 

to save their lives, if the galleys had not come up 
when they did. Moscoso, as there was nothing else 
to be done, ranged his boats again in their order, re- 
turned to his course, but sorely hurt and grieved over 
the loss of his men. The Indians after this fine stroke 
followed the Spaniards only one day and night longer, 
sending their triumphant war-cries and yells over the 
water. On the seventeenth day of their voyage, at 
sunrise, with one great chorus of voices and horns and 
drums, they dropped out of sight, and this time their 
retreat was final. When the Spaniards saw they had 
really given over the chase, they were confident that 
the sea must be near, and that for this reason alone 
the savages had returned to their homes. 

From this time the river continued increasing in 
width, so that going down the centre of it, the Span- 
iards could see nothing of either bank but its line 
of green foliage. They kept in midstream, not 
daring to turn in to either bank for fear of getting 
lost in swamps or lagoons. The river grew so wide 
at times, they said, that they did not know whether 
they were in the sea or still in the river. In this 
doubt they sailed and rowed three days longer, 
which brought them up to the nineteenth day of 
their voyage. On that day there appeared on their 
left a great expanse of driftwood ; so immense it 
was that it looked like an island. Further on lay 
bare, naked sand. Beyond that the eye shot out 
into the sea itself. 



CHAPTER XXV 

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO 

OT knowing how far they were yet from the 
end of their voyage, Moscoso and his offi- 
cers decided, before venturing out to sea, to 
examine the vessels and see if they needed repair. 
Going to work with their usual promptness and 
energy, the men soon had the boats unloaded and 
careened up on the driftwood island. They found 
very little to be done to them. They then slaugh- 
tered the few hogs that were still alive, and after 
that they lay down to sleep, and for three days they 
slept like the dead; for the Indians had allowed 
them no sleep on the river, and they were perishing 
for sleep ; besides being spent with rowing, and 
almost starved, having eaten nothing for days, but 
parched corn measured out to them every day, a 
helmet full for every three men. 

How many leagues they had travelled down the 
river during the nineteen days of their voyage they 
never knew. The Indians gave them no leisure in 
which to take measurements, and in talking it over 
among themselves then and afterwards, they ex- 
pressed great difference of opinion about it, some 

303 



304 Hernando de Soto 

persisting that they travelled during a day and a 
night only twenty leagues, others thirty or forty ; 
but most agreed that, as they came down with the 
current, they must have made on an average twenty- 
five leagues every twenty-four hours. 

About noon of the third day of their rest, they 
were startled by seeing seven canoes of Indians 
come out from a clump of rushes on the marshy 
ground near by and paddle towards them. In the 
bow of the first canoe stood the leader, an Indian 
as tall as the great Philistine and as black as a negro, 
completely different in colour and appearance from 
any natives seen inland. Calling to the Spaniards 
in a loud and commanding voice and pointing towards 
the mouth of the river, with violent gestures he 
ordered them to leave under penalty of being killed. 
Then, without waiting for a reply, he turned his 
canoe and, followed by the rest, disappeared in the 
rushes again. The Spaniards, watching, saw other 
canoes busily coming and going in and out of the 
rushes. Evidently an attack was in preparation, 
and they quickly decided that it should come from 
themselves, and before nightfall. For after dark the 
savages could easily fall upon them and burn their 
boats and, knov/ing the land and water about them 
as they did, could safely escape, while the Spaniards 
in their ignorance would be helpless. Therefore 
Moscoso ordered Gonzalo Silvestre and Alvaro 
Nieto with a hundred men to get into canoes and 
paddle into the marsh in search of the savages. 

Pushing stealthily through the tall rushes, the 



On the Gulf of Mexico 305 

Spaniards found them in a clear, smooth round of 
water walled in by the thick growth, — seventy canoes 
of them. Charging at once into them, the Spaniards 
upset three of their canoes, killing some of the In- 
dians, and wounding more; and pushing on they 
fought with their utmost skill, courage, and strength. 
But the Indians were brave fighters, too, and they 
used a weapon the Spaniards had not seen in Florida 
before, although it was known and feared by the 
Spaniards of Peru, — a kind of dart of cane with a 
sharp-pointed head of fishbone, which they threw 
with deadly skill and unerring aim, inflicting wounds 
as large as a man's hand. And their canoes, smaller 
than the ones used on the river, were like trained 
horses under rein, swerving, dodging, darting, wheel- 
ing round and round, easily turning inside their 
length, fleeing and charging back again, while the 
Spaniards broke their arms trying to get up to them. 
But the Spanish arms and armour told, as they 
always did, and the savages finally retreated. In 
the meantime the Spaniards at the driftwood were 
busily reloading their boats, and when Gonzalo Sil- 
vestre and his men returned, being fearful that the 
savages might still collect and come that night to 
burn the boats, they hurriedly embarked, and sailed 
over to the sand island at the mouth of the river. 
There they anchored and passed the night sleeping 
on board. 

The next morning Luis de Moscoso called all 
the men together in a council, and commanded each 
one to speak his mind, and say whether he thought 



3o6 Hernando de Soto 

it better to cross over the high seas to Mexico or to 
keep along the coast. There were various expres- 
sions, and finally Juan d'Aiiasco arose and spoke. 
He maintained that it was better to go by the high 
seas and across the Gulf, for that would be three or 
four times shorter in distance than it would be 
going along the coast, on account of the twisting 
and turning of the land ; and he exhibited a chart 
that he had traced upon deerskin from memory of 
a chart of that coast that he had once seen, and an 
astrolabe, which in his fondness for such things he 
had picked up from the ruins of the fire at Mauvila, 
and had kept, and a jack-staff he had made with a car- 
penter's rule. With these he now proposed to di- 
rect the voyage ; and referring to his chart he showed 
that the coast ran east and west to the Rio de las 
Palmas, and from there north and south to Mexico, 
so that by sailing along in sight of land they 
would lose much time, and would be in greater 
danger of being overtaken by winter before they 
could get to their haven ; whereas by crossing di- 
rectly, they might be there in ten or twelve days. 
Most of the men were against this ; they said 
that, although following the coast was longer, it was 
safer, because their boats were not strong, and were 
without decks, and that a very small storm would 
be sufficient to wreck them. If they should be hin- 
dered by contrary weather on the open sea, they 
said, or delayed by calms, as they could carry but a 
scant supply of water in their casks, they would run 
great risk of perishing from thirst. And even, they 



On the Gulf of Mexico 307 

said, if the boats were strong enough to venture 
across the sea, having neither pilot nor pilot's chart, 
it was not good judgment to attempt to do so. 
Although Juan d'Aiiasco with his talk moved the 
captain-general and some others to sustain his opin- 
ion, the greatest number being in favour of going 
along the coast, that counsel prevailed. 

While they were raising anchor to depart, Mos- 
coso's cable of twisted rags parted ; the best divers 
in the crews dived until three o'clock for the anchor, 
but they could not find it, to the great disappoint- 
ment and dismay of Moscoso and all in his galley. 
A grindstone was found, however, and some bridles 
which the cavaliers still had left from their horses, 
and with these a weight was made which would serve 
for an anchor. And then they all put out to sea. 
It was the eighteenth day of July, 1543, the wind 
fair and weather prosperous. 

Seeing Moscoso's boat, as usual, in the lead, steer 
out two or three leagues from the shore, the captains 
in the other boats sailed up and overtook him, de- 
manding why he put off so far from shore. They 
told him that, if he intended to leave the coast, he 
should say so, but not to do it without the consent of 
all, and, if he did, that they would not follow him, but 
each man would do what seemed best for himself. 
Moscoso answered that he only bore off from land 
to sail the better and safer by night, and that the 
next day he would return in sight of the coast 
again. So thev sailed along in a reasonably good 
wind that day, the night following, and the next 



3o8 Hernando de Soto 

day, until the hour for the evening prayer. They 
were still in fresh water, which surprised them very 
much, for they were very far from land ; but, as 
they explained it to one another, the current of 
the river was so strong, and the slope of the bottom 
so gentle, that there was no reason why the fresh 
water should not extend far out into the sea. 

That night, when they came in to land for the 
night, discouraged, perhaps, by the slow progress 
they had made, they allowed Juan d'Anasco to 
win them over to his way of thinking, and all 
consented on the morrow to commit themselves and 
their boats to the high sea, for the great advantage 
of shortening the voyage. They sailed thus two 
days, but when they wanted to come in to land for 
water, they could not, for the wind was off shore. 
So they kept out two days more ; then their water 
began to fail, and temper and murmurs arose against 
Juan d'Anasco and his nautical makeshifts and pre- 
tensions. They said he was always talking too 
much, and pretending to know. Did he not say 
he could lead them by land to Mexico ? And was 
he not the cause of that useless march, and the 
loss of so many brave men ? He was not a sea- 
man, and had never been to sea in his life until he 
had come upon that expedition ; yet here he was 
pretending to pilot them. Even the men in his 
own boat mocked at him and his instruments. And 
they grumbled, too, against Moscoso for following 
him, and all swore that if they ever got ashore again, 
they would never go from it, and the captain-general 



On the Gulf of Mexico 309 

could go where he pleased. Juan d'Anasco, hearing 
all this, grew so angry that he threw his chart and 
jack-staff overboard. But they were not lost ; the 
men in the boat coming after prudently picked 
them up, for they were tied together and floated 
on the water. The wind changing a little, at the 
end of five days, by dint of hard rowing, they got 
back in sight of land, their supply of water com- 
pletely exhausted. But that very evening the wind 
rose, and, the anchors being too weak to hold, the 
boats would have been driven ashore if Moscoso 
had not commanded the men to jump into the 
water on the shore side, and, as the waves receded, 
to push the boats out again. So they worked until 
the wind eased in the morning, when they made their 
way into a bay and went ashore, and, by digging in 
the sand, secured fresh water enough to fill their 
casks. 

Putting out, they sailed two days, until, the south 
wind again blowing hard, they ran into a small 
river and waited there four days for the sea to calm. 
Venturing forth once more, they sailed a day ; but, 
towards evening, the wind grew so strong that it 
drove them in to shore, and they were sorry enough 
that they had left the good harbour of the day be- 
fore ; for, as the night came on, the wind waxed into 
a tempest, and all night the five boats fought for 
their lives in the wild roadstead. Their anchors re- 
fusing to hold, with seven or eight men to an oar, 
they kept pulling to seaward ; as the waves broke 
over the boats, some would jump out and push them 



jio Hernando de Soto 

from shore as fast and as hard as they could; then, 
jumping in again while the next breakers were com- 
ing, they would all set to bailing the water out. 
And in the thick of the storm, and of their fears of 
being wrecked, they endured from midnight on an 
intolerable torment of swarms of mosquitoes which 
settled all over them, stinging so venomously that 
their faces swelled to an enormous size. 

With dawn the wind slacked and the sea calmed, 
but not the mosquitoes, for the sails were black 
with them, and the men at the oars could not row 
unless their comrades kept them off; and, dis- 
tressed as they were, they were forced to laugh at 
one another's grotesque masks of faces. Turning 
into a little bay, the mouth of a small creek, they 
found the bank lined with a black scum cast up by 
the sea, which proved to be the resin copal, used 
by the sailors in the West Indies and South America 
to pitch their ships with; so the Spaniards stopped 
here long enough to pitch their boats with it. 

After two days' rest, they put out to sea again, 
sailed two days, and stopped and rested two days. 
The wind was against them, but, in their craving to 
shorten their voyage, they put out to sea with their 
oars, and for ten days pushed along with sail and 
oar, making very little headway, however, for all 
their labour. The next stop was under the lee of 
a small island ; and while they were there, there fell 
out such another storm that they gave thanks to God 
for being in shelter. They were weather-bound here 
fourteen days, during which they caught quantities 



On the Gulf of Mexico 311 

of fish ; and, too, a fish came near catching one of 
them. A man who had gone to sleep with the end 
of his line tied to his arm awoke just as he was 
being drawn out into the water up to his neck. 
He remembered his knife just in time to cut the 
line and save himself. 

When fair weather at last came, before taking to 
their boats, they marched in a solemn procession 
along the strand, beseeching God to bring them in 
safety to a land where, as they contritely said, they 
could repent of their sins and serve Him better than 
before. After this they sailed a period of six days, 
— and so they made their way, day after day, league 
after league, how many leagues they never knew, 
keeping count only of the days ; always either beat- 
ing out to sea to keep off shore, or beating in to 
shore to keep from being driven out to sea ; using 
their oars whenever they could ; coming in to land 
for water and harbourage every two or three days. 
If the place were good, they stopped to fish, some 
dragging the net and casting the line, while others 
waded along the strand for shell-fish ; for, since they 
had used up their grease in pitching their boats, they 
had nothing to eat but dry corn. As they were 
more often in the water than out of it, they had long 
since discarded all clothing save their short skin- 
breeches. 

Fifty-three days passed, and it seemed to them 
they must be nearing the River of Palms, that it 
could not be far away ; and with each dawn rose 
hope of coming in sight of it, and with each sun- 



312 Hernando de Soto 

set the hope went down. And each day some 
one with a new pretension to cosmography or sea- 
faring knowledge would hazard prophecies and con- 
victions about it. But, in truth, those that knew 
most never knew for a certainty either what sea they 
were in, or what land they were coasting. The 
only thing they did know was that if they kept on 
sailing in the direction they were now following, and 
if the sea did not swallow them, they would reach 
Mexico ; and this one certainty it was that enabled 
them to support the voyage. And whenever the 
wind subsided, discussion would as surely arise 
as to the course, on all the boats, Juan d'Aiiasco 
again obstinately insisting that it were well to bear 
more to seaward ; for he remembered distinctly that 
the coast from Rio de las Palmas ran north and 
south. Some believed that they had overshot the 
river at night, and others said that it was not good 
to sail at night, lest they should overshoot the river ; 
others maintained that it was not well to lose time 
by not sailing at night while the weather was favour- 
able, for they were not near enough to the place 
yet to pass it by in the night. It was finally agreed 
as a compromise to take in half the sails when they 
sailed at night. 

On the fifty-third day, while they were sailing 
along, looking ahead at their hopes, in the blank 
sky and water of their horizon, for there was noth- 
ing else to see, a north wind sprang up, — one of 
those north winds that blew more furiously on that 
coast, the Spaniards said, than in any other region 



On the Gulf of Mexico 313 

they had ever known. Five of the vessels, among 
them the captain-general's, were sailing together. 
Seeing the storm coming, they began to draw in to 
shore, using the oars and looking for some inlet in 
which to find shelter. The other two boats, sailing 
carelessly far from shore, were caught by the wind 
and before they knew it driven out to sea. This 
was what every man in the fleet had most dreaded, 
and justly. For the tempest waxed to frightful vio- 
lence all that night; as the men said, it clutched 
them by the throat, and they fought back with 
the Credo between their teeth, labouring and strug- 
gling with wind and wave. The mainmast of one 
of the boats went down in the blast, and the crew 
gave themselves up for lost ; but they righted the 
mast, and desperately battled on through the dark- 
ness and the vortex of yawning waves grinning like 
teethed mouths around them. 

When daylight came, they thought the fury of 
the storm would abate, but it grew still wilder, fiercer, 
and more relentless, and they fought on all the day 
as they had all the night. Through flashes of 
cleared sky, they could see afar, as in a vision, the 
five other galleys riding at ease in some haven or 
heaven, safe from the hell they were in, and they 
strained anew to make that harbour themselves. 
But the clouds would close over them again, shut- 
ting them in with the savage elements, and many 
times the boat went under the waves, they thought 
for good and all. At last they gave up, and trying 
no more either for themselves, companions, harbour, 



314 Hernando de Soto 

or home, they turned then- prows to the wind and 
let themselves go with it. They had then been 
fighting twenty-six hours without a wink of sleep, a 
moment's rest, a mouthful of food, half-way up 
their legs in water, now pulling at the sails, now 
bailing out the water which the waves poured over 
them. 

Sunset came, and still no prospect or promise of 
betterment ; the sea was even more hideous, more 
ominous than before. Suddenly, along the line of 
sullen light on the right hand, the wind, as the 
chronicler says, seemed to be picking up hills of 
white sand, blowing them from one place to another 
with incredible ease and speed ; on the left a pitch- 
black line appeared. Then in one of the boats the 
high, shrill voice of a lad called out : " Senores, I 
know this coast ! Twice I sailed along it when I 
was serving as cabin boy on a ship; but I do not 
know the land nor what country it belongs to. 
The black line on the left is a rocky and danger- 
ous coast ; it runs a long way until it reaches Vera 
Cruz. In the whole length of it there is neither 
port nor harbour, only sheer sides and rocks with 
points like knife-blades, where, if we strike, we shall 
be ground to pieces between them and the waves. 
The white coast on the other side is clean and easy; 
and so before night comes, while we still have light, 
we had better try to make it ; for if the wind drives 
us off it, and on that black line, there is no hope 
for us to escape alive." 

The captain of the brigantine ordered warning 



On the Gulf of Mexico 3 1 5 

to be shouted to the other boat, which was under 
command of Juan Gaytan, so that he also might 
avoid the peril. The waves ran so high that the 
boats most of the time were not visible to each other; 
but whenever they arose in sight on the crest of a 
wave, shouts were sent across to head for the white 
coast and beach the boats. But Juan Gaytan ob- 
jected to destroying his boat, which he said was 
worth money. At this, as one man, all his crew 
jumped up to answer him : " How much more do 
you own in this boat than any one of us ^ In 
God's truth ! you own less than we, or nothing in 
comparison, for in your official dignity as treasurer 
for the king you refused to cut the wood for it, or 
saw the planks, or get charcoal, or work at the forge 
to make the nails, and help to build it, or even to 
calk it, or do anything else of any use for it, while 
we did all this work. And so what do you lose in 
losing this boat ? Perhaps you think it would be 
better to lose the fifty men in it ^ " Some of them 
sprang to the sails, a Portuguese took the tiller, and 
the rest seized their swords and shields and stood 
ready. Tacking first on one quarter, then on the 
other, and daring the tempest still at its height, for 
their last chance for life, they headed the boat for 
the white coast, and just as the sun went down under 
the water they drove hard upon it. A huge breaker 
carried the boat further on the beach ; the next 
turned it over. Jumping out, the crew righted it 
and held it, while the cargo was pitched over and 
caught and carried up on dry land. In no time the 



3i6 Hernando de Soto 

boat was emptied and by the help of the waves was 
pushed upon the beach and propped there, so that 
it could be easily launched again if necessary; the 
other crew, doing exactly the same thing to their 
boat, beached it about two crossbow-shots away. 

The men of both boats came together to deter- 
mine what was now to be done. All agreed that 
their first duty was to find the captain-general and 
the boats they had left behind and seen far away, 
lying at anchor, and give him a report of what had 
happened. But considering the immense toil of all 
in the tempest for the past twenty-six hours, no one 
dared name the soldier for the mission and the 
manifest peril. None knew how far the tempest 
had carried them beyond the other boats, nor what 
the coast was, nor what country they were in; and 
so each man stood thinking until the silence was 
broken by Gonzalo Quadrado Xaramillo, who, step- 
ping out in front of his comrades, said : " I offer 
myself for this service. I promise that I shall walk 
all this night, and not stop until daylight bring me 
to the captain-general, or I will die in the attempt. 
If there is any one who will come with me, let him 
come; if not, I shall go alone." Another soldier 
came forward, and putting himself by the side of 
Xaramillo, " To life or death," he said, *' I will go 
with you ! " And as they were, without a moment's 
delay, each one with only his sword and shield and 
a handful of corn for food, they started off. It was 
one o'clock at night. 



CHAPTER XXVI . 

MEXICO 

^ I ^HE Spaniards on the beach posted sentinels 
i and went to sleep in their boat. At day- 
light they all came together in council again, 
and three parties of twenty men were selected to ex- 
plore the country in different directions : one along 
the coast towards the south, one towards the north, 
and one under Gonzalo Silvestre inland. The men 
following the coast returned, after walking about a 
league, bringing, each party, some fragments of 
gilded and painted porcelain, such as is made in 
Spain. They had not looked for anything else, as 
this was best evidence that they were in a Spanish 
country ; but Gonzalo Silvestre and his men, when 
they returned, brought with them two baskets of 
fruit and corn, a turkey, two fowls, some conserves, 
and an Indian. Their comrades were making great 
rejoicings over the fragments of porcelain. But 
when they saw the turkey, the fowls, the fruit, and 
the rest of the spoil of Silvestre, and understood 
that it had come from a hut, they could not contain 
themselves, but danced and laughed like madmen. 
The surgeon, who was in the crew and had been 

3'7 



3i8 Hernando de Soto 

in Mexico and knew something of the Mexican lan- 
guage, spoke to the Indian. "What are these?" 
he said, holding up a pair of scissors. The Indian 
answered in Spanish, " Tijeras." 

Then the Spaniards knew that they were in 
Mexico, and they fell upon Gonzalo Silvestre, kiss- 
ing and hugging him, and finally raising him up in 
their arms, and putting him on their shoulders, they 
carried him round in triumph, shouting and 
hurrahing for him, praising and acclaiming him, 
as if he had presented to each one of them the 
land and its lordship. The outburst over, return- 
ing to the Indian with more calm and reason, they 
asked him the name of the country, and of the 
river or body of water in which the captain-general 
and the five galleys had found refuge. " This 
land," said the Indian, "belongs to the city of 
Panuco, and the river is the river of Panuco, 
which flows into the sea twelve leagues from here. 
I am a slave of a citizen of Panuco." He added 
that about two leagues away was an Indian lord or 
master of slaves, who knew how to read and write, 
having been taught by the priests, and he ofi^ered to 
go and bring him to them. He went and returned 
with the Indian lord, who was followed by slaves 
loaded with fowls, corn, fruit, and bread ; he brought 
also paper and pen and ink, with which the Spaniards 
at once wrote a letter to their captain-general and 
sent it by one of the Indian slaves. 

Xaramillo and his comrade walked all night with- 
out stopping, and at daylight reached the mouth of 



Mexico 



3^9 



the river Panuco, and shortly afterwards beheld the 
galleys. The captain-general and all his officers 
and men, who were in great distress over the loss 
of the other two galleys, could not believe their 
own joy when they saw the two Spaniards coming. 
After hearing Xaramillo's story, they related theirs. 
Pedro Calderon had been sailing ahead. A quarter 
of a league before he came to the river, he saw 
muddy water in the Gulf, and knew it to be the 
fresh water of a river, and steering into it, he soon 
saw the river pouring over its sand bar into the Gulf. 
He was in doubt whether to sail in or not, but was 
driven in by the storm for shelter. Advancing up 
the stream he saw, as in a dream, on the bank men 
and women dressed like Spaniards. Asking them 
what country it was, they answered Panuco. The 
gladness of the Spaniards at that moment, says the 
chronicler, was as if they had been born again; 
going ashore, they kissed the ground, and with hand 
and eyes lifted to heaven, they gave thanks to God. 
The other boats, following Calderon, entered the 
river also, and lay at anchor there during the storm. 
When the Indian m.essenger arrived with the 
letter, Moscoso sent back the answer, that, as soon 
as the two crews were rested, all were to journey up 
the river to the city of Panuco and arrange there 
what further they were to do. Eight days later all 
came together in Panuco ; barefooted, half naked, 
in their ragged skin garments, disfigured, black as 
negroes, thin, parched, weak, they looked more like 
the wild beasts, whose skins they wore, than human 



320 Hernando de Soto 

beings ; the people of Panuco pitied them with 
tears, for they knew that there were many high-born 
cavahers among them. At last they were in the land 
of Christians ; and the first thought of the con- 
querors was to return public thanks to God. This 
they did at once, walking to church in procession. 
The chief magistrate took the captain-general into 
his own house, and quartered the rest of the men 
among the townspeople, who treated them with all 
generosity and courtesy. 

A messenger was sent with the news to the 
viceroy of Mexico. He and the citizens of Mexico 
could hardly credit it, for it had been so long since 
any news had been received from De Soto's expe- 
dition that it seemed impossible that any part of it 
could have survived. The viceroy returned a com- 
mand that the men should be treated with all hos- 
pitality and distinction, and, when rested, sent on 
to the city of Mexico ; everything they wanted, 
lodgings and food, was to be furnished them free 
along the way, and Indians given them to carry 
their luggage. 

For ten or twelve days the Floridians, as they 
were called, rested in Panuco. And now a strange 
change came over their minds. Observing atten- 
tively the city they were in, they saw that the hfe 
there was a hard and poor one ; for there were 
there neither mines of gold nor silver, nor any 
forms of wealth, save a few horses bred for sale 
in other parts of the country, and a few groves 
of mulberry trees cultivated for silkworms ; and the 



Mexico 321 

only food, what could be produced from the ground. 
Most of the people, even the richest, wore garments 
of cotton, and the richest were those who, besides 
horses, raised a few head of cattle for sale. All the 
fruit trees were brought from Spain, the houses 
were poor and small and thatched with straw, and, 
according to the saying, the future was all the furni- 
ture in them. In short, the Florida conquerors 
saw that the land they were in could not be com- 
pared with the one they had left, in any manner or 
way. For in Florida the natives, instead of cotton 
coverings, wore mantles of the finest skins and 
furs ; there was no need there to plant and cultivate 
mulberry trees, for they grew naturally and in the 
greatest quantities, as did nut and fruit trees of all 
kinds, and grape-vines. And so from one thing to 
another, memory brought back to them all that they 
had seen in Florida, — the fine provinces, the rich 
soil, the bountiful harvests, the beautiful meadows, 
the spacious grazing lands, the grand forests, the 
great rivers, and, finally, the vast accumulation of 
pearls there. 

What a contrast with the wretched poverty they 
saw around them ! and with great sorrow of heart 
and pity for themselves, they confessed their sad 
thoughts to one another. " Could we not have 
lived in Florida," they said, " as these Spaniards 
live in Panuco ? Were not the lands there better 
than these? If we had been willing to remain 
and settle there, should we not have been fxr better 
off than our hosts here ? Have they, perchance, 



322 Hernando de Soto 

any more mines of silver and gold than we found 
there, or any of the treasure of pearls we despised 
there ? Is it well that we should be receiving 
hospitality and charity from others poorer than 
ourselves, when we ourselves might have shown 
hospitality and entertainment to the whole of 
Spain ? that we, who might have been lords of 
vassals, are come to be beggars ? Would it not 
have been better to have died there than to live 
here ? " And the more they thought and talked 
about it, the more disgusted they became, until 
they grew so excited and angry over the riches 
they might have had, that they went to quarrelling 
with one another, laying upon one another the blame 
of abandoning the land. And so fierce and bitter 
grew their feelings, that they took to fighting and 
using their swords upon one another as freely as 
they had once used them upon the Indians. Their 
greatest hatred was turned against the royal officers 
and nobles and cavaliers from Seville, for it was they 
who, after the death of Hernando de Soto, had most 
strenuously insisted upon abandoning Florida, in- 
stead of carrying out the Adelantado's plans, — the 
building of forts and sending for reenforcements ; 
and they had proved for themselves that ships and 
armadas might easily have ascended the Great River. 
The quarrels grew at last so fierce, and the cutting 
and slashing so reckless, that none of the captains 
and officers dared go out of their lodgings ; and the 
soldiers then waxed so furious with one another that 
the whole of Panuco could not keep peace among 



Mexico 323 

them. The mayor, seeing the discord increasing 
day by day, sent a report of it to the viceroy. He 
ordered the men to be sent at once to the city of 
Mexico, in detachments of ten and twelve, the 
detachments to be formed only of men of one way 
of thinking, so that they might not kill one another 
on the road ; and so they set out. Those who had 
a coat of mail were able to exchange it for a horse, 
but the most travelled on foot. All along the road, 
as they passed through the villages, the Indians 
received and served them well. 

The fame of the Floridians preceding them, when 
they arrived at the city of Mexico, the richest and 
noblest of its citizens and cavaliers were assembled 
to greet them and take them to their houses, where 
they clothed and fed them with the best to be had. 
The viceroy's hotel was free to as many as were 
willing to go there, and he commanded apparel to 
be given them ; and those who were of quality sat at 
his ov/n table. The viceroy moreover proclaimed 
that throughout the city of Mexico he alone was to 
judge these Spaniards, as some inferior magistrate 
had put some of them in jail for wounding one 
another in their disputes. For their disputes had 
broken out with even greater heat and bitterness in 
Mexico than in Panuco, seeing, as they did here, 
what value the rich citizens put upon the few arti- 
cles they had brought back with them, the pearls and 
particularly the skins, which, soiled and covered with 
grease and pitch though they were, were bought as 
soon as shown. And they made the gallantest hose 



324 Hernando de Soto 

and doublets imaginable ; the richest cavaliers buy- 
ing them at the highest prices, and having them 
cleaned and made into garments which they wore 
with greatest effect on the public square of Mexico. 
He who could not procure a whole garment of the 
furs was mightily content to have a collar of them, 
and wore it as a costly thing, and one of great rarity. 
All of this served only to drive the Florida con- 
querors to the greater grief, rage, and desperation. 

And now the ringing words of Hernando de Soto 
in Quiguate came back, to them : " Why do you 
wish to go to Mexico ? To show the smallness and 
vileness of your souls ? That, having it in your 
power to become the lords of this great kingdom 
containing so many beautiful provinces, you would 
go and abide in the house of strangers and eat at the 
table of charity, when you could have had your own 
lands, and your own table to share with others ? " 
The viceroy, seeing that the men were in truth be- 
side themselves and had lost their reason, appeased 
them with all possible blandishments and suavity ; 
and to console them, he gave them his word and 
promise that he would himself, some day, undertake 
the same conquest, if they would go with him, tak- 
ing at once into his pay as many as chose to serve 
him. 

Juan d' Anasco, Juan Gaytan, Balthazar de Gal- 
legos, and Pedro Calderon returned to Spain, pre- 
ferring, they said, to live there poor to growing rich 
in the New World. Some of the soldiers joined 
religious orders, following the example of the brave 



Mexico 325 

Gonzalo Quadrado Xaramillo, who entered the 
order of St. Francis. Luis de Moscoso remained 
in Mexico, marrying a noted and rich lady of that 
city. Most of the men, however, rebuilding their 
demolished hopes, went to Peru, and taking part in 
the war among the conquerors there, gained, some 
of them, fame and fortune. 

And now there is nothing more to tell except 
how Gomez Arias and Diego de Maldonado ful- 
filled the orders they had received from De Soto. 
After reporting to Dofia Isabella de Bobadilla, and 
spreading the news of the discovery and conquest 
throughout the islands of the Indies, they bought 
three vessels, and loaded them with the food, arms, 
ammunition, and cattle, the calves, mares, horses, 
seeds, eggs, wheat, barley, and vegetables that were 
needed for the new settlement. And they could 
have loaded as many ships more, because the in- 
habitants of Cuba and San Domingo and Jamaica, 
excited by the accounts of Florida, were enthusi- 
astically generous. 

Sailing into the port of Achuse and not finding 
the Adelantado there, the captains sailed out again, 
and going the one to the east and the other to the 
west, coasted the length of the land until winter set 
in, and forced them to return to Havana. The fol- 
lowing summer they set sail again, and returned to 
Achuse, and again, not finding the army there, they 
coasted the continent from Nombre de Dios in 
Mexico to Newfoundland, in search of sight or 
sound or rumour of it, and in vain. As soon as 



^26 Hernando de Soto 

the next summer permitted, the two captains made 
still another effort, spending seven months search- 
ing for the Adelantado, but were driven as before, 
by winter, back to Havana. 

In the summer of 1543, although three years had 
now elapsed since any one had heard of the expedi- 
tion, they sailed again to Florida, determined to per- 
sist in their search until they had definite knowledge 
of its fate ; for they could not believe that the land 
had consumed the Adelantado and all of his men 
without any being able to make their way out in 
some direction. On this cruise, arriving at Vera 
Cruz about the middle of October, the captains 
learned that three hundred of the Spaniards had 
escaped into Mexico, but that the Adelantado was 
dead in the land of Florida. They returned to 
Havana and communicated this to Doiia Isabella. 

And Doiia Isabella — what of her? When to 
the three years of sleepless anxiety and grief were 
added the death of her husband, the failure of the 
expedition and the loss of their fortunes, and the 
ruin of their estate and house, the heart of D6na 
Isabella, brave though it was and strong, broke 
under its weight of sorrow. She died shortly after- 
wards. 



YANICEE SHIPS AND YANKEE 
SAILORS: Tales of 18U. 



JAMES BARNES, 

Author of "Naval Engagements of the War of i8i3." 

" A Loyal Traitor;' " For King and Country" etc. 

With Numerous Illustrations by R. F. ZOGBAUM and 
CARLTON T. CHAPMAN. 

Crown 8vo. Cloth, gilt top. $1.50. 



COMMENTS. 



" There are passages in this book which are as strong 
and captivating as the work of the best writers of the 
day ; to mariners and those who love the sea and ships 
these tales will appeal irresistibly. 

" Each story is a gem by itself. It is told with a direct- 
ness and a strength which carries conviction. All are 
based upon actual occurrences, Mr. Barnes tells us, and 
while some of the incidents related may come under the 
head of tradition, yet most of them are historical facts, and 
he has worked up each tale so cleverly, so compactly, so 
entertainingly, that they may, one and all, be taken for 
models of their VmA:'' — Seaboard. 

"Good stories well told are those of 'Yankee Ships and 
Yankee Sailors.' They deal with the gallant defenders of 
such vessels as the Chesapeake, the Vixen, tlie fiery little 
Wasp, and grand ' Old Ironsides.'' All the stories are 
told in a spirited style that will quicken the blood and the 
love of country in every Yankee heart." 

— New England Magazine. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

66 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



OLD TIMES IN MIDDLE 
. GEORGIA. 

BY 

RICHARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON. 
Cloth. i2mo. Price, $1.50. 



" This is a collection of short stories : they are human 
nature, genial, graceful, and truthful, and are simply beau- 
tiful pictures of a real life and full of interest. The 
reader who dips into one of these stories does not warn 
to lay aside the book until it is completed." 

— The Inier-Ocean, Chicago. 

"We predict for Mr. Johnston's book a popularity 
hardly equalled by any Southern production of recent 
years." — The Herald, Augusta, Me. 

"The book will please all readers who love quaint 
humor and true pathos and a good literary style." 

— The News, Tacoma, Wash. 

"Short but delightful stories by Richard Malcolm 
Johnston, each brimful of its own peculiar flavor of 
ludicrousness, strangeness, or novelty in some form, and 
all seasoned by the strikingly quaint and expressive 
vernacular." — The Tribune, Detroit, Mich. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 
66 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



ON MANY SEAS. 

THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF A YANKEE SAILOR. 

BY 

HERBERT ELLIOTT HAMBLEN. 

EDITED BY HIS FRIEND 

WILLIAM STONE BOOTH. 
i2mo. Cloth. $1.50. 



COMMENTS OF THE PRESS. 

" Every line of this hits the mark, and to anyone who 
knows the forecastle and its types the picture appeals with 
the urgency of old familiar things. All through his four 
hundred and more pages he is equally unaffected and 
forcible, equally picturesque. To go through one chapter 
is to pass with lively anticipation to the next. His book 
is destined to be remembered." — IVew York Tribune. 

" The book reads like a romance, but is at the same 
time realistic history, before which the fancy ships and the 
fancy sailors of the novelist are pale and faded." 

— Baltimore Sun. 

''The charm of the book is its simplicity and truth. 
The author, as I happen to know, can spin thrilling yarns 
by the hour, and this book of his is simply one long yarn 
of his life. A seaman every inch of him, he writes as 
only a sailor can. No landsman, no amateur yachtsman, 
could write a book like this. The entire book bears the 
stamp of truth, and in this age of literary shams that is a 
crowning merit." — New York Herald. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

66 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



n^ 



AMERICAN HISTORY 

TOLD BY CONTEMPORARIES. 



ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, 

Harvard University. 



The Set of Four Volumes, $7.00. 
Each Volume sold Separately, Price $2.00. 



VOL. I. Era of Colonization, 1493-1689. 

Published iSgy. 

VOL. II. Building of the Nation, 1689-1783. 

Heady shortly. 

Vol. III. National Expansion, 1783-I844. 

In Preparation. 

Vol. IV. Welding of the Nation, 1845-1897. 

In Preparation. 



Professor T. H. Wood, of Worcester Academy, Worces- 
ter, Mass., says of Volume I. : — 

" The plan and the contents are alike admirable. The set loill 
be a necessity /or libraries and for teachers of American History." 



HD61 



^ .^\ J' THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 
66 Fifth Avenue, New York. 



-( 










/ '^ 







C, vP 



o 






<'. 



^.^-^.^^ 




K^ 



,40^ 



< > 5 • • 



4 



V -p. 






m..v, 



.V 



<>. 



\ \ ■ 



" « ^ <$> 



.'\J,^ 









r'v 



V 



^^ 















"SEBVATION TECHNOLOOItb. INC 
111 Thomson Park Dnve 






■OL* -^ 

xv- O. 



^^-^^^ 



^■^ 



A/ O V 'v CV . 



0^ ,*•'»- > 







V 









■V, 



'i. 



,* . . . 






> 









v>*„ 



/.-:?#!%-,%,,.'".-'> 



^°-nf-. 



^ 



♦1 P>. 



Vo 



'-ts A-^' 



-J.^ c ' - ^ 






0^ v-^'^,^ 



/^ \ ^M'^ ^-^ ■- 












> 



':^'^%^^^' </% '•-^i^/ c>^^\ '^V^i^^*' '^^\ •> 




OOtK ItOS. > a'^ 



.WAR 81,^^^^^ 

"ST. AUGUSTINE ' '^ 

^^ FLA. , , . -^^ 






^"^■^ ^^ 






'^o 



